Word: owada
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...having contributed to our coverage in 1990 of the wedding of Prince Akishino and of Emperor Akihito's ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne. While all this background proved to be essential grounding in reporting our story on next week's marriage of Crown Prince Naruhito and former diplomat Masako Owada, it did not quite reach into the, er, heart of the matter. "The topic of most interest to everyone was why a Harvard- and Oxford-educated upper- middle-class woman decided to give up her career and marry into the imperial family," says Makihara. "Only Masako Owada knows the answer...
With a one-on-one interview ruled out, Makihara, 34, who has also lived and attended school in Britain and the U.S., searched out the next-best sources of information: Owada's friends and acquaintances. "We interviewed more than 20 people who know her, and tried to piece together a portrait from their anecdotes," she says. "Her childhood friends had the most to say, perhaps because she went to the same school in Japan for nearly seven years...
...clippings about previous royal matches for leads on shops and artisans -- never publicly identified -- that may be called on to provide such ceremonial artifacts as gowns and symbolic wedding swords. Nor did pictures for the story come easily. Directing our coverage, which involved a lot of waiting outside the Owada family home, was Tokyo photo editor Eiko Reed...
Back when she was a student at Harvard, Masako Owada introduced some of her friends to a card game called Emperor. The various players drew titles from emperor to commoner. Funny thing was that Owada always managed to win: when she played she always turned out to be empress...
...stay also included a dinner with Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Hisashi Owada, father of Japan's future crown princess, Masako Owada...