Chichibu (prinsessa)

Setsuko, Princess Chichibu (雍仁親王妃勢津子 Yasuhito Shinnōhi Setsuko?), born Setsuko Matsudaira (松平節子 Matsudaira Setsuko?, 9 September 1909 – 25 August 1995), was a member of the Japanese Imperial Family. The Princess was the wife of Prince Chichibu, the second son of Emperor Taishō and Empress Teimei. She was, therefore, a sister-in-law of Emperor Shōwa and an aunt of the present emperor, Akihito.

Early life
She was born in Walton-on-Thames, England. Her father Tsuneo Matsudaira (1877–1949) was Japanese ambassador to the United States (1924) and later to Great Britain (1928), and still later, Imperial Household Minister (1936–45, 1946–47). Her mother was the former Nobuko Nabeshima.
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, Katamori Matsudaira, was the last daimyo of Aizu, a cadet branch of the Tokugawa dynasty. Her maternal grandfather was Marquis Naohiro Nabeshima, former daimyo of Saga. Her mother's elder sister, Itsuko (1882–1976), married Prince Morimasa Nashimoto, an uncle of Empress Kōjun.
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 Teimei chose Setsuko to marry her second son, Prince Chichibu. She married the Prince after her uncle, Viscount Morio Matsudaira, formally adopted her, thus removing the status incongruity between the prince and his bride, by making Setsuko the adopted daughter of a viscount. (Wikipedia 2015)