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Post by azaleaqueen on Sept 7, 2006 16:52:30 GMT -4
Masako is quite attractive and the little girl is very cute. the prince.....not so much.
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kafka
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Sept 27, 2024 21:30:03 GMT -4
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Post by kafka on Sept 7, 2006 18:05:05 GMT -4
2. Akishino is the anesthesis of hot, sexy, cute- you name it, he isn't it. THANK YOU, Aurora!!!! Whenever I read a description of the "handsome Prince Akishino," I just blink in confusion. "Er... WHAT!?!?" To my dying days, I'll never understand how he ended up as a heartthrob playboy. Even Jackie Chan would be more attractive than that reptilian worm. That was my first thought as well. She has been looking happy and relaxed in those photos from the Nederlands, so who knows what Royals get up to when there's no pressure on? NiteNurse, I'd like nothing more than for Masako to get pregnant and stick one to the IHA but I don't think it's likely to happen, even if the stress were taken off. For one thing, it took her several years before she conceived the first time, and then she miscarried. With Aiko, it required IVF before she managed to get pregnant and give birth. I don't know if she's got endometriosis or something else to make conception so difficult, but whatever it is, at her current age, I think it would be extremely unlikely. While I think Aiko is one of the cutest royal children, and would never want her not to have come into the world, I have to wonder why they didn't do gender selection back in 2000 when they did the IVF. It would have solved a lot of problems. (And according to this recent article in the Japan Times it's an extremely popular thing amongst Japanese couples. (Albeit, they prefer girls to boys, but then they don't have the bloody sodding IHA on their backs.) Also, if they did try to go ahead and do IVF to get pregnant again, along with gender selection methods to get a male heir, I think that would be even more difficult on Aiko. To use that trite cliché, "Damned if you do, damned if you don't." Masako is quite attractive and the little girl is very cute. the prince.....not so much. No, he isn't but he's such a sweetheart that I don't even see his looks. Not only did he take on the entire IHA on behalf of his beloved wife, but he's also brilliant. He went to Oxford -- specifically, Merton College, one of the brainiest of the colleges there. He's also immensely talented; he's so skilled at the Viola, a cousin to the violin, that he is at professional/concert-performance levels. He's a damn good mountain-climber and extremely well-versed in medieval history. But the real source of my admiration and support for him is his treatment and love for Masako. When he met her, he decided there and then that he wanted to marry her. He wooed her (and wooed her)(and woooooooooooooooooooooooooed her some more), and she was hesitant because she didn't want to get involved with the Imperial Family and their lifestyle. He proposed, and she took 2 months to get back to him with an answer, and it's said she declined. Because of that Imperial gilded prison. He never gave up and made her a promise that he'd always protect and defend her, and that he'd let her be herself. Because of that promise, she agreed to marry him. And when the IHA squashed her down; when she was humiliated through things like monthly reports before the court (on her knees before the Emperor) discussing the state of her period and whether she'd gotten pregnant; when the IHA refused to let her out of the country on state visits (even though they let Kiko and other members of the Imperial family); when she had been publicly shamed (under Japanese culture) by the IHA head's public demand that Prince Akishino get busy and procreate (meaning: to fix the job that she had botched up and the duty which she'd failed so badly); when she finally couldn't take it anymore and cracked, ..... Naruhito kept his promise to her and attacked the IHA on her behalf. No matter what the cost to his position, the Japanese views on duty or proper behavior, and more. The subsequent firestorm was huge --- by any standards, let alone those of the Japanese culture --- but he didn't back down. It was only when the IHA pressured the Emperor (in stories which they leaked) to bring Naruhito to curb, and when the situation was indirectly making things worse for Masako, that he knuckled under and made an "apology" to the IHA. Only, it really wasn't much of an apology and everyone knew it. But he was willing to get into a brawl with the IHA, and even strain his relationship with his parents, all for Masako. For his promise to her. And for his love for her. Because of all that, he's become a genuine royal knight in shining armour to me and I'll always think him the epitome of a gentleman, not to mention attractive. Err....... ooooops, I think I just launched a barrage of Naruhito adoration at you and.... um... I'm *SO* sorry. You probably knew all that already, but I'm afraid I become rather passionate when it comes to those two and it all comes out. Especially these days with the new birth of the first gender-selected, genetically-engineered imperial baby and the IHA's undoubted joy at the success of their machinations. I'm dreadfully sorry and I'll shut up now. *slinks away in shame and embarassment*
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Post by Sunnyhorse on Sept 7, 2006 19:48:34 GMT -4
I find him really attractive -- he has a lovely, genuine smile.
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Deleted
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Sept 27, 2024 21:30:03 GMT -4
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2006 20:20:12 GMT -4
Prince Naruhito is sweet like that. Oh how I wish he would just dismiss the entire IHA when he becomes the emperor (wishful thinking, I know). It's so amazing that he had managed to be so sweet and decent despite having to deal with the IHA his entire life. You know, if Masako and Naruhito weren't royals, they could be so perfectly happy. They just look so, so cute and so in love with one another. *swoons*
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kafka
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Sept 27, 2024 21:30:03 GMT -4
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Post by kafka on Sept 7, 2006 20:59:21 GMT -4
They do look very much in love, and I think they always have. That said, I have to occasionally wonder at the repeated, insistent rumours that Masako's father pressured her into accepting the proposal because of the quid pro quo it would yield him.
Yuna, you've heard that talk, right? They say that he forced Masako to accept because he was promised a really prominent diplomatic post and that his career would take off more than it had previously. Some say his career had stalled a bit in the diplomatic tracks and the promise of extremely prestigious positions made him bully her into taking on something which she knew would be a big mistake.
That's not to say she didn't have feelings for Naruhito. But she knew it would be a catastrophe with her personality, and with the IHA-regimen that she --- as someone from a family high up in politics --- knew full well was a minefield and prison. As the story goes, she felt a sense of duty to her family and her father to accept in order to ensure his career wasn't impeded. Especially as she thought there may be a backlash against him if he was known as the man whose daughter rejected the future Emperor.
The same story also alleges that there was a promise by the Establishment to .... (and here's where my memory and my inability to find the right documents is a problem, so please correct me if I've gotten things a bit fuzzy)... to waive potential charges against her grandfather who was an industralist. One of his business ventures had ended up on the rocks, caused some big industrial accident, or something like that, and there was an implicit promise not to sue him or hold him accountable if Masako agreed to the Crown Prince's proposal.
Again, all rumours, but Masako's extreme reluctance to agree to marry Naruhito makes me wonder if something else didn't pressure her to change her mind. Yes, she had feelings for him, and yes, he promised always to protect her, but she was too much the objectively astute, analytical, clever intellectual rationalist to change some pretty adamant feelings just because of a suitor's emotional promise. There is no doubt her father went up much, much higher in the Diplomatic Corps after her marriage, and that there would have been a stain on the name if she'd turned him down. There is also no doubt that she would have felt like a bad, undutiful daughter if she didn't try to do the best by her family, let alone her elders, by accepting the proposal.
Who knows, it's all one big rumour. But it's a pretty longstanding, established one. Again, I think she truly loves him now, but I sometimes wonder if it didn't *turn* into love, especially because it was an "Us-against-Them" situation and he was the one person by her side.
Whatever the truth may be, Masako ends up being a tragic figure, IMO. One with so much potential, who sought nothing of fame, fortune or prestige, who could have had almost everything by her own merit as a brilliant, independent, vibrant woman but --- whatever the cause --- gave it all up, only to have a totally ruined life as a shackled prisoner despised by her captors and broken down by a lack of air.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2006 21:27:51 GMT -4
Kafka, what I heard, was that the powers that be basically told them, "If you don't accept, we'll make it very difficult for your family to be in Japan." And I think you're right on about dropping charges against her grandfather. I just googled to check, and specifically, gramp's company was responsible for dumping methylmercury into rivers and ruined many people's lives. I also recall reading something on the IHA digging up her family dirt--there were media reports of her ancestors in the Edo Era being of the lower class (resposible for burials?), and therefore she was unsuitable to become Crown Princess. Once Naruhito made it clear that he wasn't going to marry anyone else, the IHA suddenly found out her ancestors were respectable samurai after all I can't believe these people. It's not like the imperial family and the aristocrats were so pure and innocent--backstabbing, killing of half-siblings and subsequently having to move the entire capital because said killed half-sibiling held grudges and cursed them...the list goes on and on. And don't even get into the palace intrigues of empresses and concubines. Oh, if only Nobunaga was through.
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kafka
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Sept 27, 2024 21:30:03 GMT -4
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Post by kafka on Sept 7, 2006 21:59:38 GMT -4
Yuna, that's it!!!!! The river dumping thing! I knew it was something industrial and that I hadn't imagined it all up, but my memory these days is getting iffy with the lack of sleep and stress.
IMO, it was definitely the grandfather/father combination in terms of pressure tactics, as well as the taint on the family name if she refused. Her personal shame and "undutiful daughter" issues were just the cherry on the cake.
I also definitely remember the IHA-digging-up-dirt story which you mentioned. They hated her from the onset. So many media analysts think it was the dinner with Yeltsin and Clinton which sent the IHA over the edge but, IMO, they thought she was unsuitable and heinous from the onset.
I can't believe these people either. For all the IHA intransigence and the politicians' blathering about Aiko's potential "blue eyed" Aryan polluting the holy, sacred bloodlines, I have to wonder about a few basic biology lessons:
--- it's the MAN who delivers the dispositive gender-deciding chromosome; and
-- if the biggest stumbling block to Aiko's Empresshood is her future husband diluting the princely lines, what about the fact that the lines have ALREADY been diluted by the commoner wives? From Michiko to Masako, the lines is already far from 100% royal and Amaterasu-based. Neither the Emperor, Naruhito nor Akishino married women of princely (and therefore, diluted Amaterasu blood). So blathering on about the danger of Aiko infecting the godly line with "blue-eyed" blood from some subhuman, subpar, subgodly troglodyte is really going too far.
People, the horse has already bolted from the flaming stables. It's too late to talk about imperfections of the pure blood. This isn't a Harry Potter movie where Voldemort's supporters talk about "mudblood." And, if we *WERE* to use the term, which is similar to that of the extreme neoconservatives, then let's face it, the Imperial Line already has Korean blood, the supposedly-worst of the worst in terms of subhuman attributes. And the Emperor has already admitted as such.
Gah, the whole thing is like a throwback to the eugenics of the Third Reich. And having Abe as PM is going to make it even worse. Between him and Aso, they're like the Two Horsemen of the Apocalypse Japanese Third Reich Rising Sun.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2006 22:47:09 GMT -4
And the irony is, during the Heian period it was actually the maternal associations that makes the Emperor. Look no further than the (fictitious) Prince Genji--he couldn't become Crown Prince because his mother wasn't noble enough, despite being a second-born of the emperor. During the time which the Fujiwara clan married so many daughters into the imperial household, so much that you could feasily call them the Fujiwara emperors. And during the shogunate periods, any shogun worth his salt married his daughter to the emperor.
Pure bloodline, indeed.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2006 22:57:34 GMT -4
Yuna and Kafka, thanks for the three page discussion of Princess Masako. It is the Japanese Imperial Family that these days rises to Shakespearean tragedy levels and that is what makes them so more fascinating than any other Royal family to me. Although there are some on this board, who prefer the Greeks. :: hic, Oxynia and Moldy Tofu:: Those little peeks of racism come through in the "blue-eyed" threat to the Japanese throne. But that is also due to the aboriginal Japanese, the Ainu who can also have bluish colored eyes. The Ainu were in the Japan isles before the current crop and the Ainu are descended from the Jomon who might be descended from some errant cruising Norweigans, or so I've read. Like aboriginal peoples everywhere, they get no respect from the current population. Anyway, I congratulate the Princesses Masako and Aiko on their first steps to escape from the dragon IHA with the birth of the new sacrificial....err imperial family prince. Poor little boy. I wish him well. He's going to need it. I would just like to throw a few more things into the mix: I don't consider the marriage of Princess Masako and her husband to be so very delightful. She was pressured into it by family and society (very powerful in Japanese culture) and by the Prince himself. He knew what she was going to be exposed to (he had his own mother's mental instability as an example) and yet he forced her into it. I don't think that he is "adorable" or "cute" because of that. He helped to cause her own mental distress. The IHA is full of officials desended from the old warrior castes and the military aristocracy that lead Japan into Manchuria and the Second World War. They never went away after the defeat and they are still causing some concern these days with a resurgence in the Japanese government. And to bring back the Shakespearean reference, it is truly ironic that Princess Masako has had to pay for the sins of her grandfather's environmental mercury poisoning that caused such horrific birth defects and sorrow for ordinary Japanese families. Princess Masako in her turn has had such difficulties with conception and procreation and had to live with her "mistakes and defects" in the imperial household. Very sad for such a lovely lady; it was the sins of the fathers and they should have paid. One last comment, even in this day and age of genetic information and knowledge, I have listened to a Japanese friend bemoan her inability to produce a girl for her marriage. Even though I pointed out to her (and her husband) that the lack of a daughter was his responsibility---he determines the sex of the child not her. Such is the pressure of society and culture. (And that sort of warped thinking also applies in my own culture, I readily admit it.)
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Post by Oxynia on Sept 7, 2006 23:47:46 GMT -4
Hee...! Well I prefer snarking on the Greeks because I am Greek and because they are probably the most snark-worthy "royals" I can think of. The Japanese are fascinating on a grander scale but I don't spend much time thinking of them because when I do, I just get angry. The IHA enrages me and the treatment of Masako and women in general just gets my blood pressure up. So for health reasons, I stick to the fake royals and their sad, pathetic little lives. ;D
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