>>> Item number 14101 from WRITERS LOG9306C --- (216 records) ---- <<< Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1993 17:00:04 JST Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: Mike Barker Subject: FILLER: Notes on the Royal Wedding (Lengthy - lots of little bits and pieces...) peggy (thanks for the note about havasupai. there's something in the complex of notions of "normal life" which we've created during the 100 years or so of the industrial revolution that worries me...have to think about it) -P.S. Mike, tell us about the the wedding -- Masako Owada and what's his -name -- we want the _unofficial_ report! Thought of you during all the -falderol on the news and regreted that we'd never hear from you again. almost forgot - at my office (and according to reports elsewhere in Japan), people circulated lists of "Top 10 Things To Do" during the wedding day vacation. Watching the wedding... I don't think I saw that on any of the lists. I have to admit I didn't pay a whole lot of attention... Jim, if I remember correctly, you were interested in what the local slant on the Japanese Royal Wedding was, too. Here are some random notes... Names - Masako-san (before the wedding) now (after the wedding) is Masako-samma. We still have linguistic odds and ends in Japanese that are special for royalty. Hironomiya (the prince) is ordinarily referred to just by his name, although sometimes people add Kotaishi (Prince) or Kotaishi-Denka (His Majesty the Prince?). He is the oldest son, and will probably be the next Emperor. Her background - her father was an ambassador to several countries, and everyone here knows that she went to high school in Belmont (Boston, Mass.), then to Harvard. Not sure of the accuracy, but people think she majored in International Affairs. They first met some 5 years ago, introduced by one of Hironomiya's cousins. When Hironomiya expressed interest, the Royal office asked her father - who refused, based on too wide a difference in backgrounds. According to the popular mythology, at least, the Royal office arranged several meetings for Hironomiya with other candidates from the Royal family during the intervening years, but no luck. As late as October of last year, the Royal office tried again with her father, and was turned down. Then the Prince (apparently) got into the act, and promised her that if they were married, and there was any difficulty, he would give his life for her. His sweet words turned her heart...(I'm not kidding, that's the line the media gives out). Well, no matter, in early January, at last everything was settled and the wedding announced. From January until the wedding, fifty or more cameramen have waited outside her house every day in case she came out and they could catch a picture. The street in front of her house has been renamed Princess Street. On the day of the wedding, local stores had free gifts and sales. People from all over the country have taken to visiting... Between the engagement and the wedding, there was probably a special a week, exploring some aspect of his or her life. Even though no one seems to consider the Royal family as especially exciting, these shows all got high ratings, largely from the feminine side of Japan (they were usually shown in the early evening, and seemed slanted for women - my wife faithfully watched them). Leading up to the wedding, we had the seemingly obligatory threats by the Red Army (communist party) and other local terrorist or political action groups to disrupt the event. This has become the norm here for any significant activity in Tokyo - you know you've made it when the terrorists threaten to take action against you. The Tokyo government roughly a week or two beforehand barred access to a part of Yoyogi park supposedly used by Iranian visitors for a variety of activities. Depending on which rumor mill you like, this was deliberate provocation, a planned upgrade to the facilities that had nothing to do with the wedding, disruption to terrorists, a crackdown on drug dealing, but mostly confusing. One other odd story from before the wedding. Masako-san's family had ordered some new furniture (to go with her to the Palace - dowry, of sorts). Naturally, the company making the furniture got tremendously excited, and decided to "improve" the furniture. So, her two kimono "closets" - free-standing sets of flat drawers, with doors - were carefully coated with gold-foil. Upon seeing it, her family refused the order, explaining that such extravagant furniture was not suitable. (They did accept other pieces with a special goatskin finish, supposedly with fifty or more layers of hand-waxing. Apparently a little extravagance was alright...) When the mass media tried to track down the gold-plated units to show it off, both the furniture (and the president of the company) were in hiding... To help her family prepare (furniture, clothes, etc.) the Emperor and Empress gave her family 10,000,000 yen (about 80,000 dollars). Some people think this is quite a bit, some think it somewhat low. Part of the time (March and April), Masako-san spent attending an eight week class on how to act. This included such arcania as the fact that she is expected to wear a hat at all times in public, plus language classes to practice use of the Royal forms. The wedding day was a national holiday. Every TV channel spent the day in coverage of the wedding. Wedding itself - one oddity is that the Emperor and Empress do not attend the wedding. They meet the couple afterwards, for a ceremonial meal (at which, oddly, nothing is eaten...) Then came the parade. 160,000 people attended, after passing police checks which included (three times) ID checks and body searches (patdowns). That's right, to attend the parade, you had to pass three checkpoints, with the police "frisking" you at each point. Judging by the T.V. reporting, many people considered it worthwhile, just for a glimpse of the new couple. Events of the day included a five year old boy managing to break through the police lines and into the parade route somewhat near the Royal party. He was tackled by police and then pushed back outside. I missed seeing it, but my wife (and the commentators) said a policeman jumped on him. The TV commentators seemed to think this was over-reaction. I suspect it was reaction to the terrorist threats - I'd bet the policeman had sat through lectures dealing with modern terrorist use of women and children as living bombs, and he wasn't willing to bet that it couldn't happen here. Might even be a brave person in there somewhere, taking a chance on smothering a hand grenade (or worse) with his body. That evening, and since, there have been several commentators addressing the problem of the bride becoming a "prisoner of the palace." (The catchphrase that is tossed around - at first I thought they were saying Paris, and wondered what France had to do with the Royal Family). Apparently the Royal office provides all members of the Royal family with directions on what to say, eat, wear, and so forth in public, and even in Japan people feel that this may be very difficult for someone to adjust to. Observations that she probably won't see her family for three to five years and that she can't just go out and have her favorite dishes have been mixed with questions about whether she might (due mostly to her foreign education - Harvard, I think?) break down some of the relative isolation of the Royal Family. I think it is somewhat important that people are asking these questions, no matter what actually happens. I have had a local friend assure me that the Newsweek article two or three weeks ago was accurate - I haven't read it, but he wanted me to know that he thought it was good. During the next week, there was a reception. Sneakily, the roughly 2,000 attendees were handled in batches of about 350, during 6 repetitions (lunch and dinner) over three days. At each reception, Masako-samma changed clothes six times. One journalist has been fired. During the festivities, from the grounds, he took a picture of their bedroom. Just the empty room, you understand. And despite years of journalistic pleading that the Royal lifestyle should be more open, the Royal office has insisted on secrecy and raised a big enough stink over this to get the man kicked out. This is somewhat reminiscent of the furor at the second prince's wedding. That time, after bowing, as people lined up for pictures, the new wife straightened the prince's hair, and some news photographer captured the "Kodak moment." The Royal office was upset about that, too. Japanese impressions - many people think it is good that the next Empress is an "international woman" who speaks several languages. However, others point out that the Royal family is explicitly barred from political or economic topics, and are concerned that Masako-samma may find the "permitted speeches" hard to follow. The Royal office apparently provides guidelines as to topics and so forth before most events, which limit drastically what the Royal family is supposed to say. Lipreaders have been called on to interpret what is being said in the hours of tapes. One scene from the parade has Masako-samma commenting to the Prince that "only waving to one side is bad manners, isn't it?" Another from the receptions has her (perhaps jokingly) asking "Which one do you eat first?" when faced with an array of dishes to choose from. Hironomiya also commented that "There is always too much food, so you don't have to eat it all. (Some people) carry it home." (I haven't heard whether the Royal office has tried to get the lipreaders suppressed. If showing the public an empty room is offensive, how much worse is telling the public about the couple's little private jokes?) Something I hadn't realized. For more than a thousand years, the Royal family has only married other members of the Royal family. The current emporor made history over thirty years ago by being the first member of the family in at least that long to marry outside, with the second prince and now Hironomiya following in that new tradition. As you might expect, there are some problems with members of the family - deafness and mental difficulties are somewhat common. Out of the Emperor's group, the three older sisters either had cancer or mental difficulties, one younger brother apparently is sterile, and one younger sister (who married another member of the Royal line) has had a deaf child. The Royal family is interesting because it is almost purely for show - something like a medal or statue taken out of storage occasionally for special events, paraded and watched by all, and then stowed away again until the next time. Not particularly important or necessary, but it adds a touch of color to the event that would otherwise be lacking - and when the cost is spread over 100,000,000, it isn't too bad. It's a little bit like having a hereditary family of media stars - always good for a show, but almost invisible in ordinary life. Not sure what you were interested in knowing about the Royal wedding, but my wife carefully watched as much as she could, and remembers quite a bit of the media trivia. This is a condensation of several hours lecture when I asked about it - hope some of it is interesting. mike