Honorable Dogwood

Emperor Hirohito was anxious to do everything in accordance with Japan's new democracy--or at least in compromise with it. Instead of arranging his second daughter's marriage through a go-between in the time-honored way, he sent his frock-coated vice chief chamberlain directly to the bridegroom-elect. "Their Majesties, the Emperor and Empress," hissed the imperial emissary, bowing low, "would like to have their daughter married to Honorable Takatsukasa. What are his feelings on the subject?" "I accept," said 26-year-old Toshimichi Takatsukasa, a $20-a-month clerk in the Traffic Museum, bowing equally low.

"It's chudo--the middle way," explained a palace confidant, "neither love match nor arranged marriage." Pretty, 20-year-old Princess Kazuko had begun preparing for marriage two years ago by learning to cook, sew and sweep floors in the home of one of the Emperor's former chamberlains (see cut). The imperial family soon afterward settled on bespectacled Takatsukasa, cousin of the Empress Dowager, as a likely husband, provided both youngsters were willing.

Takatsukasa met his betrothed several times in suitably chaperoned circumstances and found her "a very nice, gentle girl." She in turn found a common interest with him in their fondness for classical Western music. As for romance--"It hasn't started fully yet," said a palace intimate last week. "It will begin from now on." "The married life of Blondie," added bridegroom Toshimichi Takatsukasa, from his broad knowledge of U.S. comics, "seems wonderfully gay."

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