By Mari Takayanagi, Senior Archivist
Following the recent State Visit to the UK by the Emperor and Empress of Japan, this blog looks at historic visits to Parliament by members of the Japanese royal family and other Japanese dignitaries, as reflected in the Parliamentary Archives collections.
Visit by the Japanese Ambassador, 1908
In July 1908, the Japanese Ambassador Marquess Komura Jutarō (1855 –1911) visited the Palace of Westminster for a luncheon party hosted by Sir Benjamin Stone, MP and photographer. Komura was a Japanese statesman and diplomat. As Minister for Foreign Affairs, he had previously supported the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902.
Komura served as Ambassador to the United Kingdom from June 1906 to August 1908. This photograph shows Komura at a luncheon party on the House of Commons terrace, seated in the middle of the front row. He is sitting between former Prime Minister Arthur Balfour, and the artist Sir William B Richmond. Other attendees include the poet Edmund Gosse, the novelist Thomas Hardy, and the wireless pioneer Guglielmo Marconi.
Komura was about to leave his post as Ambassador, as he had just been appointed to the Japanese cabinet. Benjamin Stone proposed a toast to Komura, and in response Komura 'said that wherever he found himself it would always be his endeavour, as in the past, to promote peace and cordial friendship between England and Japan.' (The Times, 18 July 1908)
Visit by Prince Akihito, 1953
The formal investiture of Akihito (b. 1933) as Crown Prince of Japan took place in November 1952, after which he began to undertake official duties. He made his first journey overseas to represent Japan at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953. This photograph was taken a few days later on a visit to the House of Commons. Akihito reigned as Emperor of Japan from 1989 until his abdication in 2019.
Sir William Teeling (1903 –1975) was an Irish journalist and writer, and Conservative MP for Brighton (1945-1950) and Brighton Pavilion (1950-1969). He met Akihito’s uncle, Prince Chichibu, as a student at Magdelen College Oxford and later visited Prince Chichibu in Japan. Teeling travelled extensively throughout his life, and was a recognised specialist in Far East affairs.
Visit by Prince Hiro, later Emperor Naruhito, 1953
Naruhito (b. 1960) was formally invested as Crown Prince in 1991 and became Emperor of Japan on the abdication of his father Akihito in 2019. Earlier in life, he lived in the UK as a student at Merton College Oxford between 1983 and 1985, and was known as Prince Hiro. He attended State Opening of Parliament the day after his arrival in June 1983. The British royal family made him welcome and he looked back fondly at his time in the UK in his memoir, later published in English as The Thames and I: A Memoir of Two Years at Oxford.
These photographs show Prince Hiro visiting Speaker Bernard Weatherill at Speaker's House for a drinks reception and dinner in his honour in 1984. Other guests included Tsuyoshi Hirahara, Ambassador of Japan, and his wife Kiyo; and Harry Jenkins senior, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Australia.
This blog illustrates how visits to Parliament have helped facilitate long historic ties between the UK and Japan.
Sources:
- Parliamentary Archives, HC/LB/1/111/20/59; PUD/5/2; HC/LB/ED/S/794-830.
- The Times, 18 July 1908
- Komura Jutaro and His Age
- Obituary of Prince Chichibu by William Teeling, The Times, 13 Jan 1953
- Obituary of William Teeling, The Times, 28 Oct 1975
- Japan-Britain Ties: Emperor Naruhito’s Student Days at Oxford
- Naruhito, The Thames and I: A Memoir of Two Years at Oxford (published 1993, English translation published 2006).
- Court Circular, The Times, 4 July 1984
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