Princess Chichibu - Early Life

Early Life

Princess Chichibu was born as Matsudaira Setsuko in Walton on Thames, England. She was the daughter of Matsudaira Tsuneo (1877–1949), Japanese ambassador to the United States (1924) and later to Great Britain (1928), and still later, Imperial Household Minister (1936–45, 1946–47) and his wife, the former Nabeshima Nobuko.

Although technically born a commoner, she was a scion of distinguished aristocratic families with close ties to the Japanese Imperial Family on both sides. Her paternal grandfather, Matsudaira Katamori, was the last daimyo of Aizu, a cadet branch of the Tokugawa dynasty. Her maternal grandfather was Marquis Nabeshima Naohiro, former daimyo of Saga. Her mother's elder sister, Itsuko (1882–1976), married Prince Nashimoto (Morimasa), an uncle of Empress Nagako.

In 1925, while her father was ambassador to the United States, Setsuko was educated at the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. (1925–1928). Upon her return to Japan, Empress Sadako chose Setsuko to marry her second son, Prince Chichibu. She married the Prince after her uncle, Viscount Matsudaira Morio, formally adopted her, thus removing the status incongruity between the prince and his bride, by making Setsuko the adopted daughter of a viscount.