TOKYO: As an expectant Britain gets royal baby fever and readies to welcome a future monarch – male or female – the young boy who carries the destiny of Japan’s ancient imperial family lives a life much less examined.
8-year-old Prince Hisahito is the only boy in four decades born into the world’s oldest monarchy, and will be entrusted with keeping alive a genealogical line traditionalists say can be traced back to a prehistoric goddess.
Unlike the House of Windsor, which lives life in the full tabloid glare and whose members provide endless fodder for gossip and speculation, the details of the lives of Japan’s imperial family are scarcely discussed.
Commentators say the young prince leads a happy life, but one in which he is already being prepared for his future role as emperor at the head of a staid and revered institution, far removed from the common folk.
“I don’t think Prince Hisahito plays computer games” like other boys his age, said Shinji Yamashita, a former official of the Imperial Household Agency and now a journalist specialising in royal matters.
“But he seems to be leading an unconstrained childhood,” said Yamashita.
Japan’s emperor is the nominal head of state and sits at the apex of the indigenous Shinto religion, an animistic belief system found only in Japan.
Although wealthy, the lives of the royal family inside ornate and spacious Tokyo palaces are heavily restricted and full of rituals, many of which are only hazily understood outside a tight inner circle of advisers.
Absent are the boozy exploits of Prince Harry, the charming common touch of Prince William, or the crusading environmentalism of Prince Charles.
Theirs is a life of regime and regimen; where their rare public appearances are carefully choreographed and recorded only by approved media, who dutifully snap the smiles of staged photo opportunities and then put the cameras away.
The ritual, to mark a birthday considered important in Japan, along with ages three and seven, saw him standing on a “Go” checkboard, wearing the trousers for the first time in his life.
![98054674_01_228895b[1].jpg](https://defence.pk./attachments/98054674_01_228895b-1-jpg.196040/ "98054674_01_228895b[1].jpg")
An Imperial aide, in the clothes of the Heian period (794-1185), combed his hair and then cut a few strands, before Hisahito jumped from the raised dais.
8-year-old Prince Hisahito is the only boy in four decades born into the world’s oldest monarchy, and will be entrusted with keeping alive a genealogical line traditionalists say can be traced back to a prehistoric goddess.
Unlike the House of Windsor, which lives life in the full tabloid glare and whose members provide endless fodder for gossip and speculation, the details of the lives of Japan’s imperial family are scarcely discussed.
Commentators say the young prince leads a happy life, but one in which he is already being prepared for his future role as emperor at the head of a staid and revered institution, far removed from the common folk.
“I don’t think Prince Hisahito plays computer games” like other boys his age, said Shinji Yamashita, a former official of the Imperial Household Agency and now a journalist specialising in royal matters.
“But he seems to be leading an unconstrained childhood,” said Yamashita.
Japan’s emperor is the nominal head of state and sits at the apex of the indigenous Shinto religion, an animistic belief system found only in Japan.
Although wealthy, the lives of the royal family inside ornate and spacious Tokyo palaces are heavily restricted and full of rituals, many of which are only hazily understood outside a tight inner circle of advisers.
Absent are the boozy exploits of Prince Harry, the charming common touch of Prince William, or the crusading environmentalism of Prince Charles.
Theirs is a life of regime and regimen; where their rare public appearances are carefully choreographed and recorded only by approved media, who dutifully snap the smiles of staged photo opportunities and then put the cameras away.
The ritual, to mark a birthday considered important in Japan, along with ages three and seven, saw him standing on a “Go” checkboard, wearing the trousers for the first time in his life.
An Imperial aide, in the clothes of the Heian period (794-1185), combed his hair and then cut a few strands, before Hisahito jumped from the raised dais.
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