As the tutor to then Crown Prince, now Emperor Akihito, Elizabeth Gray Vining provides one of the most important connections between the Philadelphia region and imperial Japan. Vining was born in 1902 and raised in Bryn Mawr and the Queen Lane section of Germantown. She lived for many years in Philadelphia and Wallingford, PA, and attended Bryn Mawr College. In 1933 she began a career as a children's book , and wrote Adam of the Road, winner of the Newberry Award in 1943. In all, she was the author of over 60 works, including biographies of William Penn and Quaker stalwart Rufus Jones, and three volumes recounting her experiences in and with Japan: Windows for the Crown Prince (1952), Return to Japan (1960), and Quiet Pilgrimage (1970).
The story of her appointment and tenure as tutor to Crown Prince Akihito is described in detail in Windows for the Crown Prince, Vining's best-selling memoir of her four years in Tokyo. Her background as a Quaker, well-educated but not strictly academic, and her experience of both success and tragedy all played a part in the Imperial Household Agency decision to choose Mrs. Vining over a number of other applicants. In addition to private lessons with the Crown Prince, her duties included English conversation classes at the Peer's School and lessons for Akihito's sisters as well She met the Showa Emperor and Empress on numerous formal occasions and even held informal conversations with them about the education of their son. Vining's account of the years of American occupation is insightful, with revelations and reports from a viewpoint that remain otherwise inaccessible. Her contact with the members of the Imperial Cabinet, as well as with the American Occupation General Headquarters and other officials, allowed Vining to write authoritatively about many historical moments, particularly in her 1970 autobiography, Quiet Pilgrimage. She recounts, for example, the final press conferences of the Imperial War Council in 1945, leading up to the drafting of the Imperial Rescript announcing surrender, based on discussions with the then-Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki and others.
After returning to Philadelphia in 1950, Vining continued to maintain a close relationship with the Japanese Imperial Family. Her home in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia is one of the few private dwellings where the current emperor has stayed, notably during a visit in 1953. She visited Japan as a lecturer and tourist in 1957, and attended the Crown Prince's wedding in 1959. Ambassadors, envoys, and members of the Imperial Family continued to visit Mrs. Vining into her ninth decade, bearing gifts ranging from bolts of Imperial silk through poems of greetings and good wishes. She was awarded the Third Order of the Sacred Crown for her work. Elizabeth Gray Vining passed away in November of 1999.
Interested in learning more about Elizabeth Gray Vining and Philadelphia's unique relationship with Japan? Phila-Nipponica: An Historic Guide to Philadelphia & Japan, a bi-lingual collection of articles on the Japan-Philly connection published by the JASGP, is available for purchase in our online store!
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