Japan's ex-princess Mako Komoru gave up her royal title to marry a commoner and her college sweetheart, Kei Kumoro, last year in October. She then moved to New York City, where she currently lives in an apartment in Hell's Kitchen. Reportedly, the former princess is now a volunteer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
According to the Japan Times, Mako has landed herself an unpaid role at the museum where she is working as a curator for the museum. Reports suggest she will be assisting an exhibition of hanging scrolls inspired by Ippen, a 13th-century Buddhist monk.
The ex-princess completed a master’s degree in art museum and gallery studies at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom. In her own country, Japan, Mako had studied art and cultural heritage at Tokyo’s International Christian University, where she also met her husband Kei Kumoro.
“She’s qualified and probably handling pieces in the collection. In general, it’s work which requires a great deal of preparation and often means spending a lot of time in the library,” a former Met curator told People.
The Met's website also features a catalog essay written by Mako that focuses on a mid-20th-century hanging scroll titled Monk Ippen Giving a Warrior the Tonsure and His Wife as a Lay Buddhist Nun by Yamada Shinzan.
