On Tuesday, in a historic moment for the Japanese monarchy, 85-year-old Emperor Akihito became the first ruler in 200 years to abdicate the Chrysanthemum Throne—the oldest continuous monarchy in the world—to his eldest son, Crown Prince Naruhito. In a simple 10-minute ceremony, the emperor and his wife, Empress Michiko, stood in front of 300 politicians and judges to formally signal the end of his reign, which began in 1989 following the death of his father, Emperor Hirohito.
The next morning, the new Emperor Naruhito was crowned in the same room.
Sixty years ago, legendary photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson took this photograph of then 25-year-old Crown Prince Akihito and his new bride, Michiko. It appeared in Town & Country's April 1959 issue, the same year the couple got married—they had met at the Tokyo Lawn Tennis Club two years earlier.
Their happy demeanor here belies the fact that members of the court, especially the prince's mother Empress Nagako, weren't supportive of their courtship.
Though she was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, Michiko wasn't a blue blood. Her marriage to Prince Akihito would make her the first commoner to marry into the imperial family in its entire 2,600-year history. The disapproval wouldn't end with the wedding—it was once reported that her mother-in-law's bullying became so intense that Princess Michiko suffered a breakdown.
The young royals would help usher in a new, modern era for Japan. Rather than relying on ladies-in-waiting to raise her children, Princess Michiko did it herself. She even cooked, getting a small kitchen installed in the palace living quarters. Meanwhile, Prince Akihito worked hard to repair the country in the decades following World War II.
He was the first member of the royal family to visit Okinawa in 1975, more than 30 years after the deadly WWII battle that killed 95,000 Japanese soldiers and 100,000 civilians.
After he became Emperor in 1989, he visited countries like Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam to apologize for wartime sins. When the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami claimed 16,000 lives, the Emperor and Empress did something unprecedented: not only did they visit an evacuation center, but they knelt before each family of survivors in a striking display of humility and compassion.
Leena Kim is an editor at Town & Country, where she covers travel, jewelry, education, weddings, and culture.
