Her Imperial Highness Princess Akiko of Mikasa made an Honorary Fellow

Her Imperial Highness Princess Akiko of Mikasa has been made and Honorary Fellow of the College.

Her Imperial Highness Princess Akiko of Mikasa is a member of the Imperial House of Japan, the elder daughter of Prince Tomohito of Mikasa. She is second cousin to the Japanese Emperor Naruhito (Merton 1983). Her grandfather, Prince Mikasa, and Emperor Naruhito’s grandfather, Emperor Shōwa, were brothers.

Princess Akiko is at heart an art historian, whose research interests lie in the perception and influence of Japanese culture and tradition in the West. She is well acquainted with Merton, having first come here for the 2001-02 academic year as part of her BA course in History from Gakushuin University in Tokyo. While at Oxford, she studied Japanese art history with Professor Steven Gunn, Tutor in History and Professor of Early Modern History, as her tutor.

The Princess evidently greatly enjoyed her year at the College, for she returned a few years later as a doctoral student. This time, she was at Merton from October 2004 until she took her final examination in January 2010. Her thesis was titled ‘Collecting and Displaying ‘Japan’ in the Victorian Age: The case of the British Museum ’. Her thesis supervisors were Professor Dame Jessica Rawson (Honorary Fellow), Merton’s first female Warden (1994-2010), and Timothy Clark, Head of the Japanese Section at the British Museum.

Professor William Anderson (1842–1900) was an English surgeon, who moved to Japan in 1873 and became an important scholar and collector of Japanese art. His collection of more than 3,000 Japanese and Chinese paintings, purchased by the British Museum in 1881, provided a rich resource for Princess Akiko’s research. The Princess was awarded her DPhil in 2011, becoming the second member and first female member of the Japanese Imperial Family to achieve a doctorate.

After leaving Oxford and Merton, Princess Akiko took up a postdoctoral Fellowship at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, and then held several posts as Visiting Associate Professor and Visiting Researcher.

The Princess has visited Turkey many times, and became President of the Japan-Turkey Society – a non-profit organisation aiming mutual exchange between the two countries – in 2014, taking over the role from her father. An enthusiast of skiing, she is also President of the Professional Ski Instructors Association of Japan.

Princess Akiko is a Professor of the Institute of Japanese Culture at Kyoto Sangyo University; Patron of ‘Shinyusha’, where children study Japanese culture; Special Guest Professor of Kokugakuin University; and Guest Professor of Kyoto City University of Arts. She also holds various other official positions, including Research Associate at the SOAS Japan Research Centre.

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