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, born on 20 October 1934, is the Empress consort of Japan as the wife of Emperor Akihito, the current Emperor of Japan reigning from 7 January 1989. She succeeded her mother-in-law, Empress Nagako (Kōjun), consort of the late Emperor Hirohito (Shōwa). Michiko married Crown Prince Akihito and became the crown princess of Japan until the death of Emperor Hirohito. She was the first commoner to marry into the Japanese Imperial Family. She has three children with her husband. Her elder son, Naruhito, is the current heir to the Chrysanthemum throne. As crown princess and later as empress, she has become the most visible and widely travelled imperial consort in Japanese history. ==Early life and education== Michiko Shōda was born in Tokyo, the eldest daughter of Hidesaburō Shōda (正田 英三郎 ''Shōda Hidesaburō''), president and later honorary chairman of Nisshin Flour Milling Company, and his wife, Fumiko Soejima (副島 富美子 ''Soejima Fumiko'', Chinese article). Raised in Tokyo and in a cultivated family, she received a careful education, both traditional and "Western", learning to speak English and to play piano and being initiated into the arts such as painting, cooking and Kōdō. She is the niece of several academics, including Kenjirō Shōda, a mathematician who was the president of the University of Osaka from 1954 until 1960.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=History )〕 Shōda attended Futaba Elementary School in Kōjimachi, a neighborhood in Chiyoda, Tokyo, but was required to leave in her fourth grade year because of the American bombings during World War II. She was then successively educated in the prefectures of Kanagawa (in the town of Katase, now part of the city of Fujisawa), Gunma (in Tatebayashi, home town of the Shōda family), and Nagano (in the town of Karuizawa, where Shōda had a second resort home). She returned to Tokyo in 1946 and completed her elementary education in Futaba and then attended the Seishin (Sacred Heart) Junior High School and High School in Minato, Tokyo. She graduated from high school in 1953. After attending college, she became known by her family as "Mitchi" (ミッチ), but admitted to have also been named in her childhood as "Temple-chan", because of her curly hair and reddish hues unusual for a Japanese girl which made her look like the American child actress Shirley Temple. Although she came from a Catholic family and was educated in Christian private schools, she was never baptized. In 1957, she graduated ''summa cum laude'' from the Faculty of Literature at the University of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature. She also took courses at Harvard and Oxford.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21741488 )〕 Since she came from a particularly wealthy family, her parents were very selective about her suitors. In fact, there had been several contenders for her hand in marriage in the 1950s.〔(« ''The Girl from Outside'' », ''Time'', 23 March 1959 )〕 Biographers of the famous writer Yukio Mishima including Henry Scott Stokes (author of The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima published by Cooper Square Press in 2000) report that Mishima had considered marrying Michiko Shōda, and that he was introduced to her for that purpose some time in the 1950s.〔(Saru, « ''三島入門 (An Introduction to Mishima)'' », ''Mutant Frog Travelogue'', 12 February 2006 )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Empress Michiko」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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