Princess Yuriko, oldest member of the Japanese imperial family, dies at 101

Yuriko Takahito of Mikasa, princess member of the Japanese imperial family, passed away on November 15, at the age of 101.

Japanese aristocrat, widow of the youngest son of Emperor Taisho, Princess Yuriko Takahito of Mikasa died at the age of 101 on November 15 in Tokyo.

Sister-in-law of Emperor Hirohito, the princess was born in June 1923. She was married to Hirohito's youngest brother – on the Chrysanthemum Throne during World War II and an ally of Nazi Germany – in 1941. She had then 17 years old.

Her husband, Takahito of Mikasa, Hirohito's youngest brother, died in 2016, also at a very advanced age, since he was born in 1915. Together, they had five children, three boys and two girls. Due to Japanese custom, which systematically deprives women of the throne, Prince Takahito was until 2009, the year of the birth of a boy in the imperial family, still in the line of succession to become emperor of Japan.

Archaeologist and orientalist

A representative of the Imperial Family on the Imperial Household Council, a body chaired by the Prime Minister and responsible for managing marriages within the Imperial Family, Princess Yuriko also worked alongside her husband.

After a military career, Takahito de Mikasa had indeed become an archaeologist and orientalist specializing in Middle Eastern civilizations. She accompanied her husband on his numerous trips abroad,