Princess Aiko is seen in a long white dress with a tiara for her official coming-of-age ceremony, at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, on Dec. 5, 2021. (Pool photo)

       TOKYO -- Princess Aiko, Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako's daughter, turned 20 on Dec. 1 and wore a tiara for her Dec. 5 official coming-of-age ceremonies at the Imperial Palace. The Mainichi Shimbun examined tiaras' history and their role as an accompaniment to the formal robe decollete dresses female Imperial Household members wear to ceremonial occasions.

       According to the Imperial Household Agency, new tiaras are customarily prepared for female Imperial Family members' coming-of-age ceremonies. Because tiaras are worn at public occasions including annual New Year's Day ceremonies and state banquets at the Imperial Palace, their costs are generally covered by expenses for the Imperial Household's public activities and other purposes. The tiaras therefore are owned by the Japanese government and returned to the country when a female Imperial Household member marries and leaves the family.

       When Mako Komuro, Crown Prince Akishino (Fumihito)'s elder daughter, came of age in 2011, she wore a tiara by luxury jewelry retailer Wako valued at about 29 million yen (roughly $255,000). Mako's younger sister Princess Kako, who turned 20 in 2014, wore a tiara that jewelry maker Mikimoto won the bid to make for around 28 million yen (about $246,000).

       Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako are seen waving during the parade to celebrate the Emperor's enthronement, at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on Nov. 10, 2019. (Mainichi/Junichi Sasaki)

       But Princess Aiko did not order a new tiara for her special day. On Dec. 5, after being awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Precious Crown, Princess Aiko attended official ceremonies in a white robe decollete outfit complete with a tiara borrowed from her aunt Sayako Kuroda, daughter of Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emerita Michiko, who left the Imperial Household upon marrying a commoner in 2005.

       This tiara was made in 1989 when Kuroda turned 20. Its costs were covered by budgets allocated to the Imperial Family's private activities, and Kuroda now owns the tiara.

       The decision to borrow it from her was made with consideration for the circumstances around the coronavirus pandemic, and came following discussions between the Imperial Household Agency, the Emperor, Empress and Princess Aiko. It was adjusted to fit Princess Aiko, and the associated costs were also deemed as being for private activities.

       Empress Dowager Shoken, the wife of Emperor Meiji, is seen wearing a tiara and Western-style attire in this portrait provided by the Ministry of the Imperial Household.

       Japan's history of tiaras can be traced to the Meiji period (1868-1912). The Meiji-era government aimed to revise a series of unequal treaties exchanged at the end of the Edo period (1603-1867), which led Japan to open its ports and end its national isolation policy, and promoted policies aiming for modernization through Westernization. It was in this context that Japan's first prime minister, Ito Hirobumi, issued an official notice in 1886 ordering that women of the Imperial Palace wear Western-style clothing.

       In January 1887, Empress Dowager Shoken, Emperor Meiji's wife, wore a German-made court dress, considered the most formal style of ceremonial attire, in New Year ceremonies for the first time.

       Yoko Takagi, professor at Bunka Gakuen University's Graduate School of Fashion and Living Environment Studies, an expert on European fashion, said, "It is thought that the empress also wore a tiara at the time. ... It must have been important to give the impression Japan was fully Westernizing culturally as well by presenting to the world Western-style attire accompanied with jewelry." Empress Shoken wears a tiara in a photo taken two years later, in 1889.

       The tiara Empress Shoken wore is said to have been passed to later generations -- Empress Teimei, the wife of Emperor Taisho, Empress Kojun, the wife of Emperor Showa (Emperor Hirohito), and Empress Emerita Michiko -- as the "grade A tiara" worn in formal ceremonies. In 2019, Empress Masako wore it during a parade celebrating Emperor Naruhito's enthronement.

       Then Emperor Akihito and then Empress Michiko are seen leaving the Imperial Palace for a parade celebrating the era change from Showa to Heisei in this Nov. 12, 1990 file photo. (Mainichi)

       Today, robe decollete is used as formal attire for the Imperial Family, and female members wear them with tiaras and badges for imperial orders during significant ceremonies and events hosting state guests from overseas.

       However, the Empress and female Imperial Family members refrained from wearing tiaras during the 2021 New Year's Day ceremony at the Imperial Palace, out of consideration for the difficulties members of the Japanese public were facing amid the coronavirus pandemic.

       Princess Aiko will take on various engagements and official duties as an adult member of the Imperial Household. Regarding her use of a borrowed tiara for her coming-of-age ceremonies, there have been numerous comments on social media that Princess Aiko reduced spending, and that the previous cases were wasteful.

       Emperor Showa (Emperor Hirohito) and Empress Kojun are seen at a banquet hosted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in London in this photo taken on Oct. 5, 1971. (Mainichi/Taro Nakamura)

       The Imperial Household Agency's Grand Steward Yasuhiko Nishimura said at a Nov. 25 press conference, "Tiaras are necessary items (for female Imperial Family members), and criticism that they are a waste of money are inappropriate." Regarding the tiara for Princess Aiko, he said, "Although we called off making one with public funds this time, we may consider it in future."

       (Japanese original by Kanami Ikawa, Tokyo City News Department)

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