Primitive Shino tea bowl by an important Shino master, Yano Keisen (1870-1965), famous forto be chosen by Empress Michiko and having a collaboration  with the calligraphy of Toyama Mitsuru (1855-1944),

Yano was a Japanese Asian Modern & Contemporary artist who was born in 1870. Yano received late the Keisen name with a letter by Sen at Eihei-ji (永平寺) is one of two main temples of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism, the largest single religious denomination in Japan  than. Yano he died in 1965. Born in Kozoji-cho, Kasugai City in 1897 he started to studyunder Shiun Masuda of Nagoya Shiramizu Rei Juku and Hisatada Kobori of Seishin Juku.He was 22 years old and he was adopted by the Yano family in Seto City. While he was serving at the Hatayama Village Office he wanted so much enter in the pottery life and started making handmade Shino bowls, which he calls simple. In 1952, he made a bowl of Kiju, and the chief of Eiheiji Temple given a letter to him, and from that moment he received the name of Keisen.

In 1959, the Crown Prince and Princess Michiko  Emperor and Empress who now passed the legacy to Naruhito ) presented their own Shino ware bowl made by Yano Keisen to the marriage.

He passed away on June 9, 1965 at the age of 94. 

The life of Empress Michiko

By Moniek Bloks 17th April 2019 

Installed at the heart of Japanese society when the country was in a state of collapse after World War II, and then launched on a frantic course to achieve modernity, over a period of 60 years, Michiko followed an unexpected path: that of encouraging the Japanese people to indulge in greater introspection in order to build a united, peaceful and enlightened Japan. 

Michiko Shōda - the future Empress of Japan - was born on 20 October 1934 at the University of Tokyo Hospital. She was the daughter of Hidesaburō Shōda and Fumiko Soejima and was the second of four children. She received a solid education, a combination of traditional and Western, and learned to speak English. She attended the Futaba Elementary School in Tokyo but was forced to leave because of bombings during the Second World War. She returned to Tokyo after the war and then attended the Sacred Heart School, from which she graduated in 1953.

She continued her studies at the University of the Sacred Heart in Tokyo and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature. She met her future husband, the then Crown Prince Akihito, on a tennis court in August 1957. Their engagement was officially announced on 27 November 1958 with the engagement ceremony taking place on 14 January 1959. Michiko was considered to be a commoner, and it was rumoured that her future mother-in-law, the Empress Kōjun, who was a born Princess, opposed to the match. When her mother-in-law died in 2000, it became clear that she had indeed opposed the marriage and that her disapproval had caused Michiko to become depressed. Nevertheless, the couple had widespread public support. On 10 April 1959, she became Her Imperial Highness The Crown Princess, and the newlyweds moved to Tōgū Palace.

Akihito and Michiko: a modern fairy tale

The imperial couple met during a tennis match in the summer of 1957 at a resort in Karuizawa, a popular tourist destination in Nagano prefecture. Michiko was the eldest daughter of Hidesaburo Shoda, president of Nisshin Seifun, a major Japanese food company. A year and a half after their meeting, Kunaicho announced the engagement of the heir to the throne Akihito. The fact that she was not an aristocrat, but the first woman without blue blood to be engaged to an heir to the throne, led the Japanese to love her right away so much that, according to the Kyodo news agency, in that period even the sales of televisions among the population, because everyone wanted to see the future imperial couple fulfill the dream of love, which came true with the wedding on April 10, 1959.

Despite the strict rules of etiquette and the suffering repeatedly expressed by Michiko, the empress has always respected her role and her commitments. And it is also for this reason that the wife of the current heir to the throne Naruhito, the sad princess Masako Owada, perhaps the next empress, is not frowned upon by Kunaicho. Today 53 years old, Masako is the daughter of diplomats and she herself had a good career in the field of international relations but she had to give up everything in 1993, when she married the heir to the throne Naruhito. Ten years later, when the first child Aiko was only two years old, Masako disappeared from public life. For years she has been suffering from severe depression, which the Japanese media attribute to the fact that she was unable to give her husband - and her people - a son. As a good husband Naruhito has always defended her, speaking of his wife's inability to adapt to imperial life, but this does not prevent the Japanese tabloids from publishing (even today) articles against Masako of her, accusing her of not playing their role. .

Just read the interview a few years ago by Japanese writer Nanami Shiono (friend of Empress Michiko) who said of her: "Masako was the hope of Japanese women. Today, with the refusal to fulfill the public duties and the tastes of her by enriching her, she is our shame ". And she then adds: "After the earthquake, rushing to comfort those poor people would have been an opportunity to recover. Instead she doesn't go. Like her, she doesn't go out to greet those Japanese who come from all over the country to clean the imperial palace for free. Thus she destroys the image of the crown prince. The people have separated from her ".

The writer Nanami Shiono

Instead, the images of Akihito and Michiko, after the earthquake and tsunami of 11 March 2011, are imprinted in the hearts of the Japanese. After the tragedy, the emperor, together with his wife, went to visit centers for displaced persons, breaking all rules of etiquette. As if to say: it is not the time of rules, it is the time of compassion, of mercy. This attitude has brought the imperial couple even closer to the people, so much so that over eighty percent of the citizens support the emperor's decision to withdraw.