Photo/Illutration Princess Aiko, the daughter of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, visits the Naiku, the inner shrine of Ise Jingu shrine, in Ise, Mie Prefecture, on March 26. (Tadashi Mizowaki)

Princess Aiko, the daughter of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, visited Ise Jingu shrine in Ise, Mie Prefecture, on March 26 to report her graduation from Gakushuin University.

This was the first time for the princess to not only visit the shrine but also to make a solo trip outside of Tokyo.

Dressed in white, Aiko visited the Geku, the outer shrine, which is dedicated to Toyouke no Omikami, the goddess of food and industry, then went to the Naiku, or inner shrine, where the legendary sun goddess Amaterasu-omikami is enshrined.

As she slowly made her way along the approach to the main shrine, Aiko was greeted by worshippers along the roadside who said, “Congratulations on your graduation,” to which she responded with a nod.

She offered a “tamagushi” sacred “sakaki” tree branch in front of the Uchitamagaki minami gomon gate, and bowed toward the main hall.

Aiko graduated from the university on March 20 and will begin working next month at the Japanese Red Cross Society in Tokyo.

This was Aiko’s second visit to the shrine since 2014, when she and her parents, then the crown prince and crown princess, visited the shrine together.

Her solo trip continued on March 27, when she visited the Saiku Historical Museum in Meiwa in the prefecture.

Saiku means a palace and government office where the Saio, an unmarried female member of the imperial family who served in the Ise Jingu shrine, lived from the Asuka Period to the Nanbokucho Period.

The museum is built on the excavation site of Saiku, and has historical materials and exhibits about the Saio as depicted in classical literature such as “Ise Monogatari” (The Tale of Ise) and “Genji Monogatari” (The Tale of Genji).

At the entrance to the museum, Aiko walked up to local elementary school children who were welcoming her.

Some of the children told her, “You graduated from college, didn’t you?” and Aiko responded with a smile, “Are you enjoying elementary school?”

In front of a picture scroll depicting a famous chapter in the "Tale of Ise" called “the hunting envoy,” the museum staff explained to her that it is about Saio’s romance.

Aiko asked, “Is (love) taboo for the Saio?”

When the staff said, “(The Saio) is an unmarried woman, so it is taboo,” Aiko replied, “It is interesting that it is depicted (in the picture scroll).”

Aiko also spent some time in front of an exhibit on the waka poems of Princess Shokushi, one of the most famous female poets of the medieval period.

She said Shokushi was the subject of her graduation thesis and her poems are “beautiful.”

Aiko also toured the Itsukinomiya Hall for Historical Experience in Meiwa, before visiting Emperor Jinmu’s mausoleum in Nara Prefecture.

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