Japan’s Former Princess Mako Finds Work At The Met After Leaving Royalty

Image by Presidencia El Salvador via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Career switches aren’t that unusual today, but the former Princess Mako of Akishino has made one of the most significant changes to hers, and the art world is welcoming it.

The former Japanese princess stepped down from royal status last October to marry her college sweetheart Kei Komuro, a commoner—as well as turned down the ¥150 million ($1.3 million) dowry the Japanese government usually offers to women of the imperial family who give up their title by way of marriage. The couple tied the knot at a simple courthouse wedding and relocated from Tokyo to New York City.

Her husband has since found work at a legal firm. As for the former royal, the Japan Times reports that she is finding fulfillment at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, mostly likely in the Asian art department.

A source tells the Japanese news outlet that Mako Komuro is volunteering at the institution, so she’s not taking any payments. The former royal is said to be working on an upcoming exhibition of hanging scroll paintings by Okinawan artist Yamada Shinzan, which chronicle a monk’s journey around Japan during the Kamakura period (1192-1333) to introduce the people to Buddhism.

The former princess purportedly penned the essay for the only Shinzan hanging scroll art in the Met’s online database.

Art history may seem a little out of the norm for a royal, but Mako Komuro is profoundly qualified for the role. Among her accolades are an undergraduate degree in art and heritage from the International Christian University in Tokyo, a master’s degree in museum and gallery studies from the University of Leicester, and the assumption of a special research role at the University of Tokyo’s University Museum while she was still part of the imperial family.

Her job scope at the Met probably includes handling art and compiling research, a former curator of the museum shares with People. The role needs “a great deal of preparation” and time spent in the library, the source tells the magazine.

[via The Art Newspaper, Vanity Fair, The Japan Times, People, cover image by Presidencia El Salvador via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)]