By AKIKO TADA/ Staff Writer
May 16, 2023 at 18:31 JST
The restored court gown of Empress Shoken (Provided by Daishoji temple)
KYOTO--In their first trip outside Tokyo in four years, Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emerita Michiko praised restorers here who finished their work on a 19th-century court gown.
“You did a great job,” Michiko reportedly told the restoration project members when she visited Daishoji temple in Kyoto on May 15.
The formal dress with a long trail that belonged to Empress Shoken (1849-1914), the consort to Emperor Meiji (1852-1912), had undergone restoration since 2018.
“I really appreciate (Michiko’s) generosity and her gratitude to, and interest in, restoration projects, without which this project would not have been possible,” said Monica Bethe, who heads the Kyoto-based Medieval Japanese Studies Institute.
The garment is believed to have been made around 1890 and has been kept since 1909 at the temple, where female members of the imperial family and court nobility lived when they became Buddhist nuns after retirement.
While the gown had long been believed to have been tailored in Europe, the repair work has revealed that the embroidery was made in Japan, according to the institute that led the restoration project.
The couple, particularly Michiko, have supported the work of Barbara Ruch, an American researcher who has been committed to the preservation and restoration of the cultural heritage of imperial convents, according to their aides.
They introduced Ruch’s work to the late painter Ikuo Hirayama, who headed an organization now known as the Foundation for Cultural Heritage and Art Research.
This led to the foundation’s decision in fiscal 2000 to start awarding grants to Ruch’s projects.
Michiko also donated through the foundation part of the royalties from her books.
The visit was part of the royal couple’s first official trip to meet people outside the capital since 2019.
Other destinations include Chuguji temple and the Nara History, Art and Culture Village, both in Nara Prefecture.
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