Named for Haruko, Empress of Japan. (1850 - 1914) At the time of her birth, the Japanese were forbidden to leave their country, and foreigners were not allowed to enter.
It can be said she ushered in a new era for Japanese women. She did not have shaven eyebrows and blackened teeth like her predecessors and often wore Western dress at court occasions. Haruko appeared in public, loved art and literature, wrote poetry, and was a generous patron of female education, the Red Cross Society, and other philanthropic enterprises. By her example, she raised the status of women in Japan.
