Yūko Tanaka

Yuko Tanaka (田中 裕子, Tanaka Yūko) is a Japanese actress who was born on April 29, 1955, in Ikeda, Osaka, Japan. She has won several acting awards during a long career working in both film and television.

Life and career

Early career

At the beginning of her career in 1979, Tanaka had a leading role in the NHK TV drama series Sister Ma (マー姉ちゃん, Ma Nee-chan) and she also voiced the role of Judy in the Fuji Television anime movie Daddy-Long-Legs (あしながおじさん), based on the novel by Jean Webster, which was broadcast in October 1979. Tanaka appeared in her first theatrical film in 1981, the historical drama Eijanaika and later that year she starred in Edo Porn, a fictional biography of the artist Hokusai. Tanaka received a number of accolades for her work in these two films including Best Supporting Actress and one of the Best Newcomer of the Year awards from the Japan Academy. She also won the Blue Ribbon Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as the Hochi Film Award for Best Supporting Actress. Tanaka returned to television drama in late 1981 with the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) series Making Memories (想い出つくり, Omoide zukuri) about three office ladies (OL) reaching their 25th birthdays. The series, which also starred Masako Mori and Yūko Kotegawa, ran from September to December 1981.

Empress dowager

Empress dowager (also Dowager empress or Empress mother) (Chinese and Japanese: 皇太后; pinyin: húangtàihòu; rōmaji: Kōtaigō; Korean pronunciation: Hwang Tae Hu; Vietnamese: Hoàng Thái Hậu) is the English language translation of the title given to the mother of a Chinese, Japanese, Korean or Vietnamese emperor.

The title was also given occasionally to another woman of the same generation, while a woman from the previous generation was sometimes given the title of Grand Empress Dowager. Numerous empress dowagers held regency during the reign of an underage emperor. Many of the most prominent empress dowagers also extended their control for long periods after the emperor was old enough to govern. This was a source of political turmoil according to the traditional view of Chinese history.

The title Dowager Empress was given to the wife of a deceased Emperor of Russia, or of the Holy Roman Emperor.

Chinese empress dowager

Empress Dowager Cixi

Empress Dowager Cixi¹ (also romanised as Empress Dowager Tzu-hsi; Chinese: 慈禧太后; pinyin: Cíxǐ Tàihòu; Wade–Giles: Tz'u²-hsi³ T'ai⁴-hou⁴; Mandarin pronunciation: [tsʰɨ̌ɕì tʰâɪ̯ xɤ̂ʊ̯]; Manchu: Tsysi taiheo; 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908), of the Manchu Yehenara clan, was a Chinese empress dowager and regent who effectively controlled the Chinese government in the late Qing dynasty for 47 years from 1861 until her death in 1908.

Guangxu Emperor

The Guangxu Emperor (14 August 1871 – 14 November 1908), personal name Zaitian (Manchu: Dzai-Tiyan), was the eleventh emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the ninth Qing emperor to rule over China. His reign lasted from 1875 to 1908, but in practice he ruled, under Empress Dowager Cixi's influence, only from 1889 to 1898. He initiated the Hundred Days' Reform, but was abruptly stopped when the empress dowager launched a coup in 1898, after which he was put under house arrest until his death. His regnal name, "Guangxu", means "glorious succession".

Accession to the throne and upbringing

Zaitian was the second son of Prince Chun, and his primary spouse Yehenara Wanzhen, a younger sister of Empress Dowager Cixi. On 12 January 1875, Zaitian's cousin, the Tongzhi Emperor, died without a son. Empress Dowager Ci'an suggested enthroning one of Prince Gong's sons as the next emperor, but she was overruled by Cixi. Instead, breaking the imperial convention that a new emperor must always be of a generation after that of the previous emperor, Cixi nominated her nephew and the imperial family agreed with her choice.