|
Mitsuko, Countess of Coudenhove-Kalergi ((ドイツ語:Mitsuko, Gräfin von Coudenhove-Kalergi); 7 July 1874 – 27 August 1941), formerly known as , was one of the first Japanese people to emigrate to Europe, after becoming the wife of an Austrian diplomat, Heinrich von Coudenhove-Kalergi, in Tokyo. She was the mother of Richard Nikolaus von Coudenhove-Kalergi. == Life == She was born as the daughter of Aoyama family, an antiques and oil dealer in Tokyo. Aoyama family was also a landowner of large estates. Aged 17 she met the Austro-Hungarian diplomat Dr. Count Heinrich von Coudenhove (from 1903, Coudenhove-Kalergi) when she came to help him when his horse slipped on ice (Heinrich often visited her father's shop, not far from the Austrian legation). Heinrich gained her father's permission for her to be employed as a parlour maid in the legation and then (after they fell in love) for them to marry. The latter request was refused, but the couple defied him, marrying on 16 March 1892 in Tokyo with the consent of the Austrian and Japanese foreign ministries. This left her disinherited and banned from her father's house. She became a Catholic baptized by an anti-masonic Catholic priest Francois A. Ligneul in Japan. In 1896 she was received at an imperial reception for foreign diplomats' wives by Empress Eishō (as a commoner Mitsuko would never have been granted such an audience, but as a countess and ambassador's wife she was) and again on the end of Heinrich's diplomatic work shortly afterwards. The couple then returned to Europe, where Mitsuko and their two sons Johannes and Richard took over management of the family estates in Bohemian Ronsperg. Once established, Mitsuko learned French, German, math, geography and history in an attempt to counter the hostility to Heinrich concerning his return with a foreign wife. Five more children would be born to Heinrich and Mitsuko. Heinrich died in 1906 and Mitsuko took over the estates and the children's upbringing and education, while studying law and economics herself. When her second son Richard was going to marry an actress Ida Roland, Mitsuko got angry intensely and didn't allow their marriage. She hated Roland with the poisonous words as "beggar" and "witch", because actresses were lowly occupation in Japan for a long time ago. She disinherited him in a certain period from 1916. Mitsuko never again returned to Japan and when she died in 1941 due to the second stroke in her life, she was buried in the Hietzinger Cemetery. 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「Mitsuko Aoyama」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|