Masako wore an elaborate $100,000 silk wedding costume for her traditional nuptials |
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"It’s all been very sudden and we're feeling rather dazed," said the bride-to-be’s mother after the engagement was announced. But Masako, whose future husband had convinced her that being a princess was just "another form of diplomacy", seemed to take the challenge in her stride, plunging into her new duties.
After accepting the proposal – only the second non-royal to marry a Japanese crown prince, as the Empress was also a commoner – Masako was immersed in rigorous preparations for her new role. In the same away she had succeeded in her professional life, she excelled at her studies, which included a crash course in Shinto rituals and traditional poetry. An apt student, the future royal finished the difficult tutorial in about 50 hours, halving the time the same task took her predecessors.
And when the wedding date – June 9, 1993 – arrived, the modern professional had transformed into a picture perfect, traditional Japanese bride. |
