The night before, she was still plain Miss Shoda, but from the moment her mother called her at 5 the next morning, she was already "Your Highness." "Take care of yourself," said a relative who had come to see her off, "when you go over there." A little after 6 a.m.. her eyes blinking back the tears, Michiko Shoda, 24, bowed stiffly to her parents, entered the antique maroon Mercedes-Benz sent by the palace, and was off to begin her life "over there" as the first commoner in 2,600 years to wed a future Emperor of Japan.
For nearly three hours, in a one-story building on the wooded grounds of the Imperial Palace, attendants worked on her hair, turning the modern bob into the high coiffure that Japanese princesses wore back in the Middle Ages. They clothed her in the juni-hitoe, the "twelve-layered garment" of red, lavender, blue, green and white silk and brocade. Then they took her to the Kashikodokoro, the "awe-inspiring place" that houses the facsimile of the Sacred Mirror, one of the three symbols of the imperial office (the others: the Sacred Jewel, the Sacred Sword). There, promptly at 10:01, "the Ceremony Before the Great Ancestors" began.
Sakaki & Sake. There were 869 carefully selected guests in the outer garden of the shrine, including 37 former peers, Premier Kishi and his Cabinet, a Nobel Prizewinning physicist, the farmer who last year grew the most rice per acre, and only one foreigner—Mrs. Elizabeth Gray Vining, the American Quaker who was the prince's tutor from 1946 to 1950.
In accordance with tradition, the Emperor and Empress were barred from the wedding; they, like the rest of Japan, had to be satisfied with watching it on television. Nor did those present see much of the actual ceremony. Led by the white-robed Chief Ritualist, the little wedding procession quickly disappeared within the shrine. Crown Prince Akihito, wearing his saffron-yellow robes, was attended only by his grand chamberlain, a trainbearer, a Shinto priest, and another chamberlain carrying the 700-year-old sword, the symbol of Akihito's royal rank.
Kneeling side by side in the inner sanctum, the prince and princess each received holy sprigs of a sakaki tree, and with these in their hands, they bowed four times. The prince then pulled out of his long sleeve a scroll, informing his ancestors that "from now on we shall love each other forever." After withdrawing on their knees to the outer sanctum, the couple took tiny sips of sake. At the moment the cup left Michi's lips, she was Akihito's wife.
Holiday & Amnesty. The day's ordeal had only just begun. The prince retired to change into white tie and tails and to grab a bite or two of a ham sandwich. Michi had her hair washed and reset, and, over a white and gold Western dress, for the first time donned the pearl-studded, golden Order of the Sacred Crown. At 2 p.m. the young couple officially reported the marriage to the Emperor and Empress. After exchanging cups of sake and going through the ritual of symbolic eating, the prince and his bride stepped into a rust-colored carriage for the five-mile drive to his Eastern Palace—a shabby place, cluttered with clerks and files on the first floor, and no match for the luxurious home that Michiko, a millionaire flour miller's daughter, is leaving.