Word: emperors
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...tombs of Korea's Kings and Queens, plundering finely worked gold jewelry, jade pendants and delicate celadon bowls. They carted off stone carvings, pagodas and priceless reliquary caskets from Buddhist temples and removed tens of thousands of ancient manuscripts from libraries. The choicest booty was often bestowed on the Emperor?like the prized blue celadon ceramics found only in the tombs of the Koryo dynasty nobility around Kaesong (now in North Korea near the border with the South). Ancient pots and spears and the like disappeared into storerooms and collections at Japan's biggest universities. Soon after the Japanese left...
...high. Crafted in October 1709, it commemorates Korea's victory over invading Japanese troops in the late 16th century. How did the memorial make its way from what is now North Korea to this controversial shrine? After the Russo-Japanese War, an army major general presented it to the Emperor as a token of Japan's victory. "It is a shocking thing that this memorial is at Yasukuni, of all places," says Masahiro Saotome, a professor of Korean history at the University of Tokyo. "Understandably, it is very annoying to Koreans...
...change. Cultural and political observers hoped the royal pair's first child, still unnamed, would help bring the nation out of a funk born of a years-long economic bust. Japanese did celebrate in the streets, but there was a hitch. Under current rules, only a male can be Emperor, and since Naruhito's brother has two daughters, there remains no legal heir to succeed Naruhito on the Chrysanthemum Throne. (Remember, folks, Japan's our ally, so this little gender-role eccentricity falls under "acceptable cultural differences.") There have, however, been eight Empresses in Japan's history, and the birth...
...tall princess doesn't have a name yet. (Emperor Akihito will bestow one this weekend.) But even before the Emperor sent his new grandchild a traditional sword, before the little princess had her first bath in a sacred cedar tub, and before she was outfitted with a hakama, or ceremonial skirt, the expectations for her were high. An economist estimated her birth could generate more than $1 billion worth of consumer spending, including grannies showering gifts on their grandkids. Doctors have predicted a mini baby boom, as parenting-resistant youth, who have given Japan one of the lowest birth rates...
...Ever since the end of World War II, when Emperor Hirohito was stripped of his divinity, Japan's royals have used life's milestones to strengthen their bonds with a skeptical Japanese public. Beneath the veneer of respect and admiration for the royals, there is still residual resentment over the role of Hirohito in Japan's wartime aggression. "I don't like the royal family very much," says a 27-year-old journalist who turned down an assignment to cover the royal birth because of her distaste for the imperial system. "It's nice to celebrate the birth, since they...