ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how postwar royal weddings, as rituals, have been used by political authorities to manage the face of officialdom. In 'A New Kind of Royalty' Jayson Chun explores how the 1959 marriage of Crown Prince Akihito to Shoda Michiko was an instance of postwar rebranding of the imperial family. Besides the members of the royal family themselves, the other key players in the remaking of the imperial family were the media and the Imperial Household Agency. The royal marriage and imperial family symbolically elaborated and condensed public debates about: marriage; women's roles; and democracy in Japan. The June 9, 1993 royal wedding between Crown Prince Naruhito and Owada Masako offers an excellent example of the role of the state in staging its own image. The ceremony's procedures were established in 1910, though such protocols were informed by much older traditions. As in most weddings, important exchanges of value took place.
