This is the second installment in the series
Guided by the light
Breaking through the clouds,
I made my way up the ridges
Towards the peak of Mt. Kinpu.
The Emperor recited this waka poem at the Imperial New Year's Poetry Reading in January. The poem describes a hike up Mt. Kinpu, which straddles Yamanashi and Nagano prefectures, when he was in his first year of high school, walking as if guided by the light appearing between the clouds near the summit.
This is the official explanation of the poem by the Imperial Household Agency. However, a source has noted that "the poem has a deep meaning."
The light represents the Emperor's father, now the Emperor Emeritus. At the time of the hike up the mountain, he was being guided by his father. As he came to understand the path his life would take, his heart felt conflicted about his destiny: becoming the future emperor of Japan.
The Emperor is the first emperor of modern-day Japan to have been brought up by his parents. Previously, the court had a practice of bringing up children away from their parents from a young age, to cultivate their spirit of independence. The Emperor Emeritus was separated from his parents at the age of 3. The Emperor, on the other hand, grew up enjoying his parents' love at the Togu Palace.
Shin Tachibana, one of the Emperor's classmates at the Gakushuin school, still remembers the time he fell in a puddle in the garden at the palace during his elementary school years. The Emperor ran up to him, worriedly asking: "Shin-chan, are you OK?"
"He has a kindness that comes naturally to him, and nothing has changed," Tachibana said about the Emperor.
The Emperor's parents brought him up themselves for more reasons than just communicating the warmth of family life. The Empress Emerita once said to an old friend, Kazuo Oda, that she and the Emperor Emeritus wanted their son to "learn about being a symbol by allowing him to witness the Emperor (now the Emperor Emeritus) at a close distance."
The Emperor Emeritus' teachings were sometimes severe. Once, when the Emperor climbed a ladder despite being told not to, his father did not allow him to climb down from the middle even though he was scared, but demanded that he continue all the way up. Fairness was stressed. When he said he wanted to play at a friend's house, his father refused and arranged for him to take turns inviting all his classmates to the palace to spend time with them.
The Emperor Emeritus and Empress Emerita also allowed the Emperor to see them meeting various people as they attended to their public duties.
From the time the Emperor was 5 years old -- before Okinawa was returned to Japan -- he participated in talks with junior high school student reporters who were sent to mainland Japan each year. In showing concern for each individual, asking about his or her life, and applauding after performances of Ryukyu dancing, he had learned the attitude of his parents.
Former Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu, who helped found the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers program, had occasion to visit the Togu Palace in the past to present an activities report. Asking Kaifu, "May I ask Naru-chan (the current Emperor) to join us?" the Emperor Emeritus had his young son join them at the dinner table to listen to the conversation.
The Emperor had choses volleyball for his physical education classes at Gakushuin University. Explaining to a classmate the reason for his choice, he said, "I haven't played team sports very often, so I think I may be lacking experience in interacting with people that way."
As the Emperor's awareness of his future role grew, he confided to the former president of Gakushuin University and his teacher, Motohisa Yasuda, who died in 1996, about his conflicted feelings regarding his destiny.
Yasuda told Prof. Yukihiko Seki at Nihon University, who was an assistant at Gakushuin University at the time, about the Emperor's genuine concern about his future position as emperor. He encouraged the now Emperor, saying: "Accept your present position and destiny and do your best in the given environment."
With the enthronement of the now Emperor Emeritus, the current Emperor became crown prince and moved to Togu Palace to live independently the following year in 1990. He was 30 years old. The investiture of the crown prince, a ceremony that made public his new status, took place when he was 31.
A former aide noted that he wore "a tense expression, with the lightness that is typical of a young person hidden away." At a press conference in February this year, he reflected on the occasion, commenting that his awareness about his role had become more firmly established.
At the 30-year commemoration of his enthronement, which was also held in February, the Emperor Emeritus stated that "the path one must travel in searching out the image of an emperor is an endless one" and expressed his wish for the succeeding emperor to continue to fulfill this symbolic image. In the first audience for the Emperor, which took place after the enthronement ceremony on May 1, he swore, "I will reflect deeply on the course followed by His Majesty the Emperor Emeritus," and "I will ... fullfill my responsibility as the symbol."
One aide said, "His Majesty the Emperor is the person who understands the thinking of his Majesty the Emperor Emeritus better than anyone else." The aide felt that the kindness and sincerity that has been nurtured in the new Emperor would bring the Emperor of the Reiwa period and the people of Japan even closer together.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
