Despite the delicate relationship due to Mako’s marriage, Princess Noriko and Princess Kako Akishino’s “rare ‘mother and son in two shots’ on official business” is aimed at…

The two looked interested as they listened to the Iemoto’s explanation and admired the flowers. Princess Noriko Akishino, 59, is dressed in a springtime pale pink outfit, and her second daughter Kako, 31, is wearing a pale blue outfit.

On April 8, they visited the “Yamamura Goryu Ikebana Exhibition” at the Nihombashi Takashimaya Department Store (Chuo-ku, Tokyo). Enshoji Temple, located in Nara City, Nara Prefecture, is a temple with a nun as its abbess and has close ties to the imperial family.

It is said that Ensho-ji Temple began when the first daughter of Emperor Gosui, who reigned in the early Edo period, became an ordained priestess and opened a hermitage. Since then, women from the imperial family and court nobles have served as chief priests. It is one of Nara’s ‘Yamato Sanmonzeki Nun-in,’ and successive generations of monzeki (abbesses and temples of the imperial family and court nobles) have served as the head of the Yamamura Goryu (flower arrangement) school,” said a reporter on the Imperial Household at a national newspaper.

Let us return to the scene at the beginning of this article. Princess Noriko and Princess Kako saw approximately 70 works created by Iemoto Michihide Hagiwara. Among them were a vase made of Ohori Soma-yaki, a traditional craft from the town of Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, which was devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake, with horse chestnut and peony flowers arranged in it, and a “Welcoming Flowers” vase made of Tamasu-yaki from Pearl Island, Ishikawa Prefecture, which was damaged in the Noto Peninsula Earthquake, with tepou lily and kiri decorated in it.

I have the impression that you have made a step toward us.

After viewing the exhibition, the couple responded to the press as follows.

Noriko said, “It was a warm and peaceful space.

Kako : “The flowers and the vessels were in harmony, creating a very beautiful space.

While there have been many occasions when the father, Prince Akishino, has been with the couple, it is rare for Noriko and Kako to be seen together as mother and son on official business. At one time, there were rumors that their relationship was strained over the marriage of their eldest daughter, Mako, to Kei Komuro. Yuji Odabe, a professor emeritus at Shizuoka University of Social Welfare, tells us.

It is said that the two of them did not agree on Mako’s marriage. It is said that Princess Noriko was against the idea of Mako and Kei Komuro getting together. Kako, who attended ICU (International Christian University) with Mako and was a close friend of Mako’s, must have been uncomfortable with her parents interjecting their opinions into her sister’s marriage.

However, the delicate relationship could not continue indefinitely. Recently, I have the impression that Kiko has come to terms with the situation. With Kako’s own marriage coming up in the near future, it would be natural for the two of them to keep in step in dealing with official duties and family matters.

Princess Noriko and Princess Kako leave the Yamamura Goryu Ikebana Exhibition with smiles on their faces. It seems that the aim of “mother and child on official business” is certainly bearing fruit.