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Our coverage of the tiaras worn by the women of Japan’s imperial family continues today with one of their newest sparklers: the diamond fleur-de-lis tiara worn by Princess Kako of Akishino, a granddaughter of Emperor Akihito.

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Like all Japanese imperial princesses, Kako received her tiara on her twentieth birthday, as well as a complete suite of diamond jewels and the Order of the Precious Crown.

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Along with the tiara, Kako was supplied with a matching mirrored necklace, earrings, a brooch, and a diamond bracelet.

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Kako’s tiara was made by Mikimoto, the famous Japanese jewelry firm that specializes in high-quality cultured pearls. Above, you can see Kako standing beside her mother and sister, the Princess Akishino and Princess Mako, at the New Year’s reception at the imperial palace in 2016; note that the floral and festoon elements of her tiara echoes the design of her mother’s tiara, which is based on her imperial emblem, the iris.

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Kako wears her tiara and jewels at all white-tie occasions attended by the adult members of the imperial family, including state banquets. When her elder sister, Princess Mako, marries next year, Kako will be one of the highest-ranking imperial women in Japan.

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Our survey of the lovely tiaras worn by the women of Japan’s imperial family continues this weekend with a look at the jewels worn by Hisako, the widow of the Prince Takamado. Because she often represents the family abroad, the Princess Takamado has several glittering sparklers at her disposal.

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This pearl and diamond scroll tiara is the first one from Hisako’s jewel collection; she wore it in 1984 for her wedding to the Prince Takamado, who was a first cousin of Emperor Akihito. (Here’s a link to a wedding picture.) The tiara, which has a coordinating “mirrored” necklace, is still worn by Hisako today. Above, she wears the tiara and necklace at the wedding of Princess Madeleine of Sweden in June 2013.

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Hisako wore her wedding necklace again in June 2015 for the wedding of Prince Carl Philip of Sweden, but on this occasion, she paired it with a small diamond and pearl drop tiara. This sparkler was previously worn by Princess Yasuko of Mikasa, one of Hisako’s sisters-in-law.

Like all Japanese princesses who marry commoners, Yasuko left her imperial jewelry behind when she married Tadateru Konoe in December 1966. The picture above was taken at a reception held on the day before Yasuko’s wedding, so it’s almost certainly the last time she was seen wearing the tiara in public.

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Hisako also has a third tiara, a delicate diamond bandeau with a classical laurel leaf design. She often pairs it with a necklace made of diamond clusters. Above, she wears the tiara and the necklace at a birthday gala for King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden in April 2016.

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The laurel leaf bandeau has also been Hisako’s go-to tiara for the annual New Year’s reception at the imperial palace in recent years. Here, in January 2016, she pairs the tiara with the same bird brooch she wore at the Swedish royal wedding in 2015. Two of her daughters, Princess Tsuguko and Princess Ayako, are standing beside her here; their jewelry suites also feature leaf motifs. (Also of note: the brooch Hisako wore at the Swedish royal wedding in 2013 appears to coordinate with Tsuguko’s jewels.)

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With news of an upcoming royal wedding in Japan, let’s have a look at the grand tiara worn at two of the most important imperial weddings of the 20th century, shall we? This tiara goes by various names, but because of its key role in these two ceremonies, I call it the Japanese Crown Princely Wedding Tiara.

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The tiara’s dominant elements are the large, curling diamond scrolls that make up the majority of the piece. Diamond ribbons trail through the base of the scrolls, and small floral-esque buttons sit at the point where the scrolls meet. (The buttons are a little reminiscent, I think, of chrysanthemums, an important symbol of the Japanese monarchy.)

The first imperial bride to wear the tiara on her wedding day was Michiko Shoda. She wed Crown Prince Akihito of Japan in April 1959. The bride and groom at Japanese imperial weddings make a costume change: they wear both traditional Japanese attire and Western clothing as part of the festivities.

For the Western-style part of her wedding, which included a carriage procession through the streets of Tokyo, Michiko wore this diamond tiara and its matching necklace. Akihito and Michiko are now the Emperor and Empress of Japan.

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Several decades later, another crown princely bride stepped up to wear the wedding tiara and its accompanying necklace. Masako Owada, a highly-educated Japanese diplomat, married Akihito and Michiko’s elder son, Crown Prince Naruhito, in June 1993. Like her mother-in-law, she wore the tiara and necklace during the portion of the wedding festivities when she wore Western-style clothing.

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Since her wedding, Crown Princess Masako has favored a different tiara, the Pearl Sunburst, for gala occasions.

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As of May 2019, the tiara has a new wearer: Crown Princess Kiko, the wife of the heir presumptive to the throne.