Beautiful kimono by the empress. I assume Aiko is not supposed to wear one until her coming of age ceremony?!
Children can wear kimonos so it was probably Aiko's choice to wear Western dress. In the Imperial family, there's a formal red kimono called "御地赤姿" princesses wear during childhood for major occasions. We often see car photos of Aiko wearing "御地赤姿" for New Year family dinner on January 2 and New Year's greetings before she started primary school.
Examples of Princess Aiko wearing "御地赤姿"
New Year greeting 2005
New Year greeting 2006
New Year family dinner 2008
New Year family dinner 2018
New Year family dinner 2019
The formal red kimono "御地赤姿" isn't mandatory though. Princesses Mako and Kako wore "御地赤姿" but there are at least 3 instances where they wore other kimonos: Emperor Akihito's 73rd (2006), 76th (2009), 77th birthdays (2010). Both princesses were still minors, see
Japanese blog photos.
Princess Ayako wearing kimono for the traditional rite of passage "Shichi-Go-San" (7-5-3).
Does anyone have any idea as to how the Empress determines whether to wear a kimono or more western attire. I have noticed sometimes when they have foreign guests she will wear a kimono and then for others she will wear an evening gown. Sometimes she is wearing the opposite of what I would expect and I just can't figure it out. It was the same with Empress Emerita Michiko only hers could be more confusing because she would be in a kimono and Masako and Kiko would be in western dress.
I remember Japanese media reported the Empress sets the dress code and Empress Masako's health has improved considerably so perhaps she's taking the opportunities to wear kimonos. She received much criticism for not wearing kimonos for a long time.
Allegedly Empress Michiko set mixed dress codes at times in consideration of Masako's condition. Masako found traditional dress stressful and that's why there was a succession of Western-dress garden parties whereas the dress code usually alternated between Western and traditional dress (not always, 2010 spring garden party had Empress Michiko & Princess Kiko in western dress and other princesses in kimonos). Also, the mixed dress codes for Japan Art/Order of Culture recipient tea parties when Masako attended towards the end of the Heisei era.
There was grumbling from Crown Prince family fans that the Akishino princesses all stuck to kimonos whereas the Mikasa and Takamado princesses adhered to the mixed dress code for the 2016 Belgian state visit return event.
Kiko, Mako, and Kako: all kimonos
Nobuko and Ayako wore kimonos while Akiko, Hisako and Tsuguko wore Western clothes.
The Japanese media noted that Masako wore a kimono for the first time in 13.5 years at the
2017 spring garden party, see
dot.asahi
