Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky listener discretion advised. It's an
Speaker 1: age old trope, a royal and a commoner falling in love.
Speaker 1: It all started, of course, at least if you were
Speaker 1: a disney kid like me, with Cinderella, a tale whose
Speaker 1: actually oldest known version dates back to the late first
Speaker 1: century BC, when the Greek historian Strabo recorded the tale
Speaker 1: of Rhodopis, an enslaved girl who married the king of Egypt.
Speaker 1: Then there are the countless versions of Cinderella across cultures,
Speaker 1: and plenty of stories with different takes on the commoner
Speaker 1: royal formula, the Princess Bride, Roman holiday, the one where
Speaker 1: Julia Stiles goes to college with the Prince of Denmark.
Speaker 1: It's a trope that has sold count less romance novels
Speaker 1: and earns the Hallmark Channel a significant chunk of their
Speaker 1: Christmas season prophet. Because of the nature of the trope,
Speaker 1: many of these stories share a central conflict, do you
Speaker 1: choose love or do you choose duty? For Princess Mako
Speaker 1: of Akashino, now known simply as Macho Kumuro, the choice
Speaker 1: was clear quote for me, Kai is irreplaceable, Macho told
Speaker 1: the press of her now husband. Marriage was a necessary
Speaker 1: choice to be able to protect our hearts in a
Speaker 1: cherishing way. We the two of us, will start our
Speaker 1: new life. If Macho and Kay's story is ringing any bells,
Speaker 1: you might have seen pictures of them out and about
Speaker 1: in their new home of New York City, usually paired
Speaker 1: with actual tabloid headlines like quote Japan's Princess Mako's shops
Speaker 1: for towels at bed, Bath and Beyond and then gets
Speaker 1: lost on her way home to Hell's Kitchen on week
Speaker 1: after arriving in New York City to start a new
Speaker 1: life with her commoner husband, or quote former Japanese Princess
Speaker 1: Mako Kumuru looks loved up as she strolls hand in
Speaker 1: hand with commoner husband in New York City after he
Speaker 1: failed bar exam for second time. Or maybe even quote
Speaker 1: Princess Mako goes shopping at Amish Market in New York
Speaker 1: as she's pictured for first time since her commoner husband
Speaker 1: finally passed the bar exam on his third attempt. Mako
Speaker 1: chose Kai, Yes, even with all those failed bar attempts,
Speaker 1: But the reality of life in the Japanese royal family
Speaker 1: meant that choosing a commoner wasn't really much of a
Speaker 1: choice at all. There was no path for Mako to
Speaker 1: become empress, with or without marriage. Women cannot inherit Japan's
Speaker 1: chrysanthemum throne, and the country hasn't had an empress since
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy one. On top of that, because Japan no
Speaker 1: longer has nobility, all royals technically marry commoners, but where
Speaker 1: a son's wife would be elevated to his royal status,
Speaker 1: a daughter will be demoted to her husband's commoner status.
Speaker 1: Mako's marriage would go on to ignite a debate about
Speaker 1: feminism in Japan, about imperial succession, and about royal customs.
Speaker 1: At the same time, she would face such intense backlash
Speaker 1: and scrutiny that she would later announce a diagnosis with
Speaker 1: c PTSD. But ultimately, this episode is a love story.
Speaker 1: I love Maco. Ka told the press, we only get
Speaker 1: one life, and I want us to spend it with
Speaker 1: the one we love. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is
Speaker 1: noble blood. Mako Kimura was born Princess Mako of Akashino
Speaker 1: on October twenty third, nineteen ninety one. Her father is Fumihito,
Speaker 1: Prince Akashino, the younger brother and heir presumptive of the
Speaker 1: Emperor of Japan, and Mako's mother is Kiko, Princess Akashino,
Speaker 1: a former academic with no imperial ties. Before we get
Speaker 1: further into Mako's life, we have to understand how succession
Speaker 1: works in Japan. The line of succession is currently governed
Speaker 1: by the Imperial Household Law of nineteen forty seven, enacted
Speaker 1: under post World War II American occupation during the reign
Speaker 1: of Emperor Hirohito, Mako's great grandfather. The new law had
Speaker 1: dramatic effects, cutting ties with eleven out of twelve branches
Speaker 1: of the imperial family and reducing the royal family to
Speaker 1: the Emperor's immediate family and the families of his brothers.
Speaker 1: This separation was intended to block the potential of using
Speaker 1: another branch of the family to revive the militarism that
Speaker 1: led to World War II. These quote parallel lineages, functioning
Speaker 1: as the nobility and aristocracy historically existed to offer male
Speaker 1: successors to the throne in the case the main line
Speaker 1: could not produce an air while also serving as a
Speaker 1: marriage pool for imperial princesses. The nineteen forty seven law
Speaker 1: also stated that only a male child descended from a
Speaker 1: male emperor could ascend the throne, and imperial princesses must
Speaker 1: leave the royal family upon their marriage to a commoner.
Speaker 1: The first princess to actually see the consequences of that
Speaker 1: law was actually Hirohito's own daughter, Kazuko, who became the
Speaker 1: first member of the imperial family to marry a commoner
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty. But again, she didn't have a choice
Speaker 1: three short years earlier, her husband had been considered a
Speaker 1: prince and a nobleman before Maco. The most recent princess
Speaker 1: to have left the royal family was her aunt Siako.
Speaker 1: In two thousand and five, she married a town planner,
Speaker 1: and she now holds a position as a high priestess.
Speaker 1: The BBC reported that upon leaving the royal family with
Speaker 1: her new husband, she had to learn how to drive,
Speaker 1: shop in a supermarket and buy furniture. Mako was only
Speaker 1: fourteen years old at that time, and while she knew
Speaker 1: that she would one day have to give up her
Speaker 1: title if she chose to marry, those worries could wait
Speaker 1: she grew up with her younger sister, Princess Kako, and
Speaker 1: later her younger brother, Prince Hishato. Born when she was fifteen,
Speaker 1: she attended Gakushin School, originally designed solely to educate the
Speaker 1: imperial children and children of aristocracy, for her primary through
Speaker 1: high school years. The Japanese public knew and saw very
Speaker 1: little of the princess during that time, with images of
Speaker 1: her being released only through official palace channels. That changed
Speaker 1: in two thousand and four, when she was thirteen, images
Speaker 1: of Mako in her sailor fuko, the iconic Japanese girls'
Speaker 1: school uniform best known to Western audiences through anime like
Speaker 1: Sailor Moon, appeared on television. A video featuring fan art
Speaker 1: of the princess in her uniform was uploaded on the
Speaker 1: Tokyo based video sharing website Nico Nicoduga and attracted over
Speaker 1: a quarter of a million views and eighty six thousand comments.
Speaker 1: When asked for their comment, the somewhat befuddled Imperial Household
Speaker 1: Agency said they were unsure how to respond as the
Speaker 1: video quote did not seem to be derogatory towards either
Speaker 1: the princess or the imperial family. A very modern princess story.
Speaker 1: In twenty eleven, Macho came of age when she turned
Speaker 1: twenty and began attending official events as an adult member
Speaker 1: of the royal family. She had already privately been working
Speaker 1: as a volunteer in areas affected by the devastating twenty
Speaker 1: eleven earthquake and tsunami, going so far as to use
Speaker 1: a nickname to hide her true identity, although some people
Speaker 1: still recognized her. During this time, she also began studying
Speaker 1: liberal arts at Tokyo's International Christian University, and she studied
Speaker 1: abroad for a semester in Dublin. When the Palace announced
Speaker 1: her intentions, a spokesman was apparently asked if she would
Speaker 1: be allowed to go out with Irish boys. Quote that's
Speaker 1: not the sort of irresponsible question I can answer, he
Speaker 1: replied curtly. Her time in Ireland was clearly inspiring. She
Speaker 1: went on to study abroad for another semester at the
Speaker 1: University of Edinburgh, and after graduating from the International Christian
Speaker 1: University in twenty fourteen with her degree in Art and
Speaker 1: Cultural Heritage, she went on to receive her Masters in Art,
Speaker 1: Museum and Gallery Studies from the University of Leicester. She
Speaker 1: put her degree to use when she took a position
Speaker 1: as a project researcher at the University of Tokyo's University
Speaker 1: Museum in twenty sixteen. It was during her time at
Speaker 1: university that she met her future husband, K Komoro. They
Speaker 1: were both students at the Christian University, but they met
Speaker 1: attending a study a broad event at a Tokyo restaurant.
Speaker 1: K was, by all means a normal student with no
Speaker 1: royal ties, unless you count his title as quote Prince
Speaker 1: of the Sea, a role he once played in a
Speaker 1: tourism campaign for the city of Fujisawa. The couple has
Speaker 1: kept the details of their courtship private, but we know
Speaker 1: the Sea Prince proposed over dinner in twenty thirteen, and
Speaker 1: then the couple maintained the relationship long distance while Mako
Speaker 1: was in the UK. The engagement wouldn't be formally announced
Speaker 1: until Nako returned and settled back into life in Japan
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen. Quote. I've been aware since my childhood
Speaker 1: that I would lose royal status once I married, Macho
Speaker 1: said at a press conference. While I've worked to help
Speaker 1: the emperor and fulfill duties as a royal family member
Speaker 1: as much as I can. I've been cherishing my own
Speaker 1: life twenty five. This meant Macho was only a quote
Speaker 1: official working member of the royal family for five years.
Speaker 1: With the Emperor's approval, the princess introduced the country to
Speaker 1: her future husband, a twenty five year old law firm
Speaker 1: employee with no historic royal ties. She told the world
Speaker 1: that she first fell for his quote smile like the sun,
Speaker 1: he told them. She watched over him quietly, quote like
Speaker 1: the moon. They planned to be married the next year.
Speaker 1: The public response was initially positive, supportive of the princess
Speaker 1: and her love story, but as we all know, that
Speaker 1: can change on a dime. The engagement of Macho and
Speaker 1: k was doomed to be plagued by concerns and scandals
Speaker 1: that didn't actually involve the couple as individuals. The announcement
Speaker 1: that Macho'd be leaving the royal fam family reignited the
Speaker 1: now decades old debate as to whether or not royal
Speaker 1: women should be allowed to retain their royal status upon
Speaker 1: marriage and even potentially gain positions in the line of succession.
Speaker 1: At the time of Mako's announcement, a poll from Kyoto
Speaker 1: News showed that eighty six percent of those surveyed said
Speaker 1: they were in favor of allowing a female to reign,
Speaker 1: and about two thirds said that sons or daughters born
Speaker 1: of royal women should also be allowed to ascend to
Speaker 1: the throne. Still, for those in disagreement, the royal family
Speaker 1: is one of the last remaining embodiments of tradition in Japan,
Speaker 1: and any change within it is highly feared. The debate
Speaker 1: was especially heated because at the same time Emperor Akihido
Speaker 1: had given Macho and k his blessing, the Japanese government
Speaker 1: was considering his request to abdicate. There was no legal
Speaker 1: precedent for him to do so, and so he publicly
Speaker 1: asked Parliament to amend the laws so he could pass
Speaker 1: the title on to his eldest son. That law was passed,
Speaker 1: and in twenty nineteen, Mako's uncle Naruhito, ascended to the throne.
Speaker 1: There's a practical argument for letting women remain in the
Speaker 1: royal family and or reign themselves. The line of succession
Speaker 1: is incredibly short. The current line of succession is Mako's uncle,
Speaker 1: then Mako's father, and then Prince Hisahito, Her seventeen year
Speaker 1: old younger brother. That's it three people. It's clear that
Speaker 1: the monarchy is not sustainable with the current laws of succession,
Speaker 1: but the debate as to how the problem will be
Speaker 1: solved rages on. The other public scandal was centered around
Speaker 1: Kay's mother. As one would expect, the Japanese press dug
Speaker 1: into his background, particularly his family. Less than a year
Speaker 1: after the engagement was announced, tabloids reported that his mother,
Speaker 1: a widow who raised him by herself, had borrowed four
Speaker 1: million yen about thirty six thousand dollars from an ex
Speaker 1: boyfriend and never paid it back. Part of the money
Speaker 1: was reported to have paid for her son's schooling. Though
Speaker 1: Kay himself had nothing to do with this, that didn't
Speaker 1: matter in the eyes of the public. In a culture
Speaker 1: that puts a lot of weight on family, he was
Speaker 1: no longer considered princely. He was a gold digger looking
Speaker 1: to use Mako in the royal family for their wealth,
Speaker 1: never mind the fact that by marrying him she would
Speaker 1: be leaving the royal family, who are not independently wealthy.
Speaker 1: It was such an uproar that the wedding was delayed.
Speaker 1: Mako told the press quote, I wish to think about
Speaker 1: marriage more deeply and concretely. Shortly after that, in the
Speaker 1: summer of twenty eighteen, Fordham Law announced that Kay would
Speaker 1: be attending their school in the fall on a full
Speaker 1: ride merit scholarship. Some speculated that he was being sent
Speaker 1: away or that he had somehow manipulated his way into
Speaker 1: the scholarship. In a news conference that same year, Miko's father,
Speaker 1: Crown Prince Akashino, said he quote respected the desire of
Speaker 1: the couple to wed, but that an official ceremony would
Speaker 1: not take place unless the public approved. In twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: at Akashino's urging, Kay released a twenty eight page document
Speaker 1: explaining his mother's loan, and his lawyer later vowed that
Speaker 1: mister Komor would pay it back. That didn't do much
Speaker 1: to change public opinion of him. Things actually worsened when
Speaker 1: photos of him appeared in New York with God Forbid
Speaker 1: a ponytail. He was torn to shreds on social media,
Speaker 1: with many believing the look was unkempt and unbecoming of
Speaker 1: a princess's future husband. The engagement would remain in limbo
Speaker 1: for years. The Emperor and Empress shared that the public
Speaker 1: would quote wait for Princess Mako to make her own decisions.
Speaker 1: It wasn't until twenty twenty one that the public finally
Speaker 1: learned what that decision was. Mako and Kay were still
Speaker 1: very much together and they would finally be married. The
Speaker 1: lead of the New York Times article announcing they were
Speaker 1: finally to be wed read quote, anyone who dreams of
Speaker 1: being a princess should probably have a chat with Princess
Speaker 1: Mako of Japan. Normally, a princess leaving the royal family
Speaker 1: is entitled to official ceremonies marking her departure and a
Speaker 1: dowry of about one point four million yen to start
Speaker 1: her new life. Mico turned it all down. It made
Speaker 1: her the first female member of the royal family to
Speaker 1: refuse a dowry post World War II. In announcing why
Speaker 1: there wouldn't be a royal wedding, the Imperial Household Agency
Speaker 1: explained it was quote because their marriage is not celebrated
Speaker 1: by many people. At the same time, it was also
Speaker 1: announced that the princess had been diagnosed with complex post
Speaker 1: traumatic stress disorder due to the public scrutiny quote, she
Speaker 1: felt like her dignity as a human being had been trampled.
Speaker 1: On Her psychiatrist said in a news conference, she thinks
Speaker 1: of herself as so without value. Mako's CPTSD is part
Speaker 1: of a sad history of women in the Japanese royal
Speaker 1: family developing mental health struggles. In the nineteen sixties, Empress
Speaker 1: Michiko lost the ability to speak for seven months and
Speaker 1: continued to suffer from nervous breakdowns, mouth ulcers, nosebleeds, and
Speaker 1: more physical complications due to the pressure of her position.
Speaker 1: Her daughter in law, the current Empress Masako, retreated from
Speaker 1: public events for a period of time beginning in two
Speaker 1: thousand and four, after facing intense scrutiny for failing to
Speaker 1: produce a male air. She had previously suffered a miscarriage.
Speaker 1: Doctor Kristin Roebuck, an assistant professor at Cornell and historian
Speaker 1: of modern Japan, explained this unique crisis to the cut quote,
Speaker 1: whether you're marrying into the royal family like the current
Speaker 1: Empress did, or you're marrying out of the royal family
Speaker 1: like the former Princess Meko did, It's always understood in
Speaker 1: Japan that the women are a temporary part of the
Speaker 1: royal family, and so they just don't get the same
Speaker 1: respect end quote. It's a complex task to discuss Japanese
Speaker 1: gender politics, and it's not something we can give enough
Speaker 1: time to today. But Western listeners might see parallels between
Speaker 1: Mago's story and Megan Markles. Intense, often singularly vicious scrutiny
Speaker 1: of women entering or leaving the royal family is not
Speaker 1: unique to any one culture. The idea of a royal
Speaker 1: family and everything it stands for, has always been threatened
Speaker 1: by a woman who refuses to conform to and comply
Speaker 1: with the pressures of both the family and the public,
Speaker 1: and every tradition and standard that the royal family stands for.
Speaker 1: On October twenty sixth, twenty twenty one, Maco and Kay
Speaker 1: simply registered their marriage in Tokyo and held a press
Speaker 1: conference afterward. Then, Mako began the process of obtaining her
Speaker 1: first passport so the couple could move to New York.
Speaker 1: The couple now live in a one bedroom apartment in
Speaker 1: the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. Kay eventually passed the bar exam
Speaker 1: on his third try and is now an associate at
Speaker 1: a New York firm. As of April twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: Mako was working as a volunteer at the Metropolitan Museum
Speaker 1: of Art assisting curators in the Asian Art department. If
Speaker 1: being an unpaid intern isn't the New York City experience,
Speaker 1: I don't know what is. The most recent photos of
Speaker 1: the couple are paparazzi shots from twenty twenty three of
Speaker 1: the pair riding the bus together, his arm around her shoulder.
Speaker 1: That's the story of the Princess of Japan marrying a commoner.
Speaker 1: But keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear
Speaker 1: a slightly more dramatic story that happened to another female
Speaker 1: member of the Japanese royal family. Meko was not the
Speaker 1: first former Japanese princess to move to the United States
Speaker 1: after marriage. Takako Shimazu, the youngest daughter of Emperor Hirohito,
Speaker 1: was once known as Princess Suga, but her marriage to
Speaker 1: a banker led to her spending two years in an
Speaker 1: apartment in Washington, d c. When she returned to Japan,
Speaker 1: she faced criticism for taking a position as a consultant
Speaker 1: at an exclusive store in Tokyo, making her the first
Speaker 1: member of the imperial family to hold a commercial job.
Speaker 1: Those who criticized her life for being too ordinary may
Speaker 1: have been forgetting one extraordinary incident, before Tacaco left for Washington,
Speaker 1: she narrowly escaped a kidnapping attempt by six men posing
Speaker 1: as bill collectors. They attempted to gain entry to her home,
Speaker 1: which they knew the location of thanks to extensive media coverage,
Speaker 1: and unlike Mako, they knew Tacaco had not turned down
Speaker 1: the dowry princesses are entitled to upon leaving the royal family.
Speaker 1: The plan was not foiled by a sting operation or
Speaker 1: a vigilante swooping in, but rather one of the potential
Speaker 1: kidnappers himself, who tipped off the press that there was
Speaker 1: a plan to kidnap the princess. A judge ultimately ruled
Speaker 1: that the plan didn't get far enough to constitute an
Speaker 1: attempted kidnapping, but the men were arrested for trespassing and
Speaker 1: illegal possession of weapons and sentenced to prison for terms
Speaker 1: ranging from eight months to three years. No one said
Speaker 1: being a princess, or even a former princess, was easy.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm and
Speaker 1: Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me
Speaker 1: Danish Forts with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston,
Speaker 1: Hannah Zewick, Courtney Sender, Julia Milani, and Armand Cassam. The
Speaker 1: show is edited and produced by Noemi Griffin and rima
Speaker 1: Ill Kali, with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers
Speaker 1: Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts
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