Japan princess weds, starts a commoner' life
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-11-15 14:09

Japanese Princess Sayako, the only daughter of Japan's Emperor Akihito, wed a commoner in a private ceremony at a Tokyo hotel on Tuesday, in the process abandoning her privileged status as a member of the imperial family.

Sayako, 36, wearing a simple, full-length white dress and pearls, followed several steps behind the groom, Yoshiki Kuroda, 40, into a sparsely decorated room where the traditional Shinto wedding ceremony was held.

The couple were greeted by a Shinto priest dressed in white silk robes and about 30 close relatives attended, including the emperor and empress.

Japanese Princess Sayako arrives at the hotel where she will marry Yoshiki Kuroda in Tokyo November 15, 2005.[Reuters]

Rather than exchanging wedding rings, the half-hour ritual centered on the sipping cups of sake rice wine.

Marriage to Kuroda, an urban planner, means Sayako relinquishes her title, swapping the grandeur of the Imperial Palace for an ordinary Tokyo apartment, and trading official duties for housework and the supermarket run.

Sayako may be the last princess to leave the royal family if the government enacts proposed legal changes that would give women the same right as men to inherit the throne and to retain their titles on marriage.

The reserved princess, whose hobbies include birdwatching and traditional Japanese dance, wrote of feeling "lonely" about leaving the palace following a stilted farewell ceremony with her parents at the weekend.

Sayako's sister-in-law, Crown Princess Masako, found the opposite transition -- from commoner to princess -- so stressful that she had to take more than a year's break from public duties, only returning to the public eye in the past few months.

Sayako Kuroda follows her husband Yoshiki Kuroda upon their arrival at a press conference following their wedding ceremony at a Tokyo hotel Tuesday , Nov. 15, 2005.[Reuters]

A smiling Masako, 41, attended the wedding in a pale floor-length gown with high collar and diamond jewelry.

A hint of the culture shock awaiting Sayako was revealed in an exchange with a lady-in-waiting quoted by one newspaper.

"It's really hard to clean up things like closets and bureaus just after you move into a new place," the Asahi Shimbun newspaper quoted the lady-in-waiting as saying.

To which Sayako replied: "What, you have to clean up?"

LITTLE MISS NEVER-MIND

But Sayako's serious, bespectacled fianc has said he is determined to help her adjust to her new life.

Though a descendant of Japan's now-abolished aristocracy, Kuroda shares a modest apartment with his widowed mother.

The newlyweds will live in a rented apartment not far from the palace before moving to a new condominium to be completed next year, media reports said.

The wedding involved little of the fanfare associated with European royal weddings, or the public frenzy that accompanied her two brothers' marriages.

But several hundred people gathered near the Imperial Palace, some waving Japanese flags, to wish her well as she departed.

"They are people in a different world from us and we look up to them, but we don't really go around shouting 'Long live the Emperor,' said Tetsuya Shinji, 33, after watching Sayako leave.

"Basically she is the same age as we are, so we thought we'd come to celebrate her marriage."

The princess -- known informally as Nori -- will wear a kimono belonging to her mother, Empress Michiko, 71, at the reception later in the afternoon, media reports said.

Sayako was nicknamed "Little Miss Never Mind" for the words of encouragement she offered the empress at difficult times.

Well-wishers wave Japanese flags as Princess Sayako in a limousine passes by in motorcade leaving the outer garden of the Imperial Palace in route to a downtown hotel in Tokyo for her wedding with commoner Yoshiki Kuroda, Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2005. [AP]

Lobster with caviar and a main course of lamb are on the French-style menu and the couple have decided to sit with their guests during the meal rather than remain on a separate, raised platform as is the custom at many Japanese weddings, media said.

Alongside Sayako's parents, among the 130 or so guests will be her elder brothers, Crown Prince Naruhito and Prince Akishino, and their wives.

Honeymoon plans have not been made public but some media reports said the couple would visit such domestic sites as the Ise Shrine in central Japan after settling into their new life.

The shrine is dedicated to the goddess Amaterasu, mythical ancestor of the imperial family, which traces its history back at least 1,600 years.

The couple's life after the wedding will be cushioned by Sayako's $1.29 million dowry from the state.

She has taken driving lessons in an apparent attempt to fit in with Kuroda's enthusiasm for motoring, and has also spent time brushing up her cooking skills.

Sayako has already given up her part-time job as a researcher at an ornithology center in Chiba, near Tokyo, possibly to give herself more time to adjust to unfamiliar chores.