Born Masako Ichijo, Empress Shoken was a bit of a prodigy in arts and education when she was young. She was also of enough noble-birth to be a consort to an Emperor. However her biggest obstacle in marriage was that she was three years older than Emperor Meiji. The issue was “resolved” by changing her birth-date, but it only made it her only officially one year younger than reality but still older than her husband Emperor Meiji.