AHC: A Japanese Princess in Windsor

Graduate Residence, Queen's University, Kingston. He was doing 'International Law' or something, umm... 1979 or 1980. He had one room, his RCMP bodyguards had the next door one. We saw the Prince occasionally, but the RCMP guys, when off duty, were cool.

Of course, it was hardly a wild party residence. Bunch of med students, Masters/PhD students, etc. We mostly just passed in the hall on the way to/from classes.

That doesn't surprise me a bit - most of the J royals seem to be a bit dull, and the stuffy IHA doesn't help much either.

(BTW, that must have been Prince Takamodo - he's the one who did law in Canada 78-80. To give you an idea of the above comment, he was one of the more "exciting" royals. Sadly, he passed in 2002.)
 
Graduate Residence, Queen's University, Kingston. He was doing 'International Law' or something, umm... 1979 or 1980. He had one room, his RCMP bodyguards had the next door one. We saw the Prince occasionally, but the RCMP guys, when off duty, were cool.

Of course, it was hardly a wild party residence. Bunch of med students, Masters/PhD students, etc. We mostly just passed in the hall on the way to/from classes.

Wait, he was in Harkness? Or is this an older res?
 
That doesn't surprise me a bit - most of the J royals seem to be a bit dull, and the stuffy IHA doesn't help much either.

(BTW, that must have been Prince Takamodo - he's the one who did law in Canada 78-80. To give you an idea of the above comment, he was one of the more "exciting" royals. Sadly, he passed in 2002.)
Really? OK. He was definitely an HIH, the bodyguards were very cadgy about explaining where in the line of succession he was, but did admit that he was a grandson of Hirohito.

My distinct memory was that he was introduced as "Norihito". But, years later when I looked at a list of Japanese royals, I assumed I must have misheard. "Naruhito" seemed close enough, I could believe that I'd mangled it that way. If it were "Takamodo" then they must have invented a fictitious name name for him? Odd. It was very low key, I don't think that hardly anyone knew he was on campus.

Wait, he was in Harkness? Or is this an older res?
The Graduate Student Residence. The tower sticking up out of the John Deutsch centre. I just looked at the Queens website, and it looks like it's much the same now as then.
 
The Graduate Student Residence. The tower sticking up out of the John Deutsch centre. I just looked at the Queens website, and it looks like it's much the same now as then.

Aah, right, Harkness is the International res, got confused. It's even worse because the International Study Centre is in the JDUC, same place the grad res is...
 
Really? OK. He was definitely an HIH, the bodyguards were very cadgy about explaining where in the line of succession he was, but did admit that he was a grandson of Hirohito.

My distinct memory was that he was introduced as "Norihito". But, years later when I looked at a list of Japanese royals, I assumed I must have misheard. "Naruhito" seemed close enough, I could believe that I'd mangled it that way. If it were "Takamodo" then they must have invented a fictitious name name for him? Odd. It was very low key, I don't think that hardly anyone knew he was on campus.

Heh - you did remember it correctly, but I'm not surprised by the confusion. Norihito is indeed Prince Takamodo's personal name - his full name wass "Takamado-no-miya Norihito shinno", with Takamodo being a historical family name he took shortly before marriage in 1986. Princess Tsuguko, whom I mentioned above as the most likely candidate to marry a Windsor, is his daughter. (Her full name is "Takamado-no-miya Tsuguko-nyoo".)

Japanese names can be tricky, especially with the Imperial family, who change family names around (not terribly rare elsewhere in Japanese society, either).

He was 7th in line. Also, he was Emperor Showa's nephew, not grandson. His father was Prince Mikasa, Showa's younger brother. (On the subject of name changes, Showa was known in childhood as Michi-no-miya Hirohito, on ascension simly as The Emperor/Tenno-samma, and postumously as Emperor Showa.)

And looking that up brings to mind a possible problem/side-effect - Prince Mikasa's history would have some interesting effects on how this would go down in the UK. I'm sure there'd be some controversy over his involvement in China, but probably ameliorated by his indictment of Japan's conduct there.

Edit: I dug up this montage of pics of Tsuguko - definately not the typical shy retiring type the IHA wants her to be! She's into hip-hop and had a bit of scandal about 5 years ago. Supposedly she had a blog in which she was posting about her sex life, as well as supposedly making use of Mixi, a Japanese social networking site, with some rather explicit posts.
 
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Heh - you did remember it correctly, but I'm not surprised by the confusion. Norihito is indeed Prince Takamodo's personal name - his full name wass "Takamado-no-miya Norihito shinno", with Takamodo being a historical family name he took shortly before marriage in 1986. Princess Tsuguko, whom I mentioned above as the most likely candidate to marry a Windsor, is his daughter. (Her full name is "Takamado-no-miya Tsuguko-nyoo".)

Japanese names can be tricky, especially with the Imperial family, who change family names around (not terribly rare elsewhere in Japanese society, either).

He was 7th in line. Also, he was Emperor Showa's nephew, not grandson. His father was Prince Mikasa, Showa's younger brother. (On the subject of name changes, Showa was known in childhood as Michi-no-miya Hirohito, on ascension simly as The Emperor/Tenno-samma, and postumously as Emperor Showa.)

And looking that up brings to mind a possible problem/side-effect - Prince Mikasa's history would have some interesting effects on how this would go down in the UK. I'm sure there'd be some controversy over his involvement in China, but probably ameliorated by his indictment of Japan's conduct there.

Edit: I dug up this montage of pics of Tsuguko - definately not the typical shy retiring type the IHA wants her to be! She's into hip-hop and had a bit of scandal about 5 years ago. Supposedly she had a blog in which she was posting about her sex life, as well as supposedly making use of Mixi, a Japanese social networking site, with some rather explicit posts.
Wow. Thanks.
 
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