Aung San Suu Kyi's Flower Hair Ornament

　Aung San Suu Kyi, chair of Myanmar's National League for Democracy and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was visiting Japan and on the 16th called on The Mainichi Newspapers at Palaceside Building in Takebashi, Tokyo, where she received a warm welcome. She had come, it seems, to thank The Mainichi for serializing her "Letters from Burma" since 1995.

　That day's outfit was a navy ethnic jacket and a longyi with navy floral patterns. She wore a pink shawl, and in her hair tied back at the rear was a pink mini-rose ornament. Myanmar women love to adorn their hair with fresh flowers, and on formal occasions they almost always wear a floral hair ornament. Yet there is said to be a special meaning in Aung San Suu Kyi's.

　While studying at Oxford in Britain, she fell in love with a British man she met there and married. They had two children and lived in Britain, but at 42 she received word that her mother in Burma was critically ill and returned alone. She knew that under the military regime, if she entered Burma she might never return to Britain. Her British husband repeatedly sought entry to Burma, but the military regime refused. Later he developed cancer and fought the illness, but without Aung San Suu Kyi going to Britain, without their reunion, he died in 1999.

　The flower she wears in her hair is said to be a variety she and the British man had exchanged on birthdays since their student days. Wearing it was, it is said, a silent sign of resistance to the military regime that continued to suppress the democracy movement.

　Looking again at her hair ornaments on this visit: when she landed at Narita on the 13th it was a yellow rose; on the 15th in Kyoto and on the 16th for meetings with the Crown Prince and her visit to The Mainichi, pink roses by day; on the evening of the 16th for talks with Foreign Minister Kishida, a yellow rose. At Narita she wore a cream jacket with a brown shawl; in Kyoto on the 15th a pink jacket with a pink shawl; on the evening of the 16th a green shawl — hair ornament and shawl were beautifully coordinated.

　Photos from the past show her hair adorned with white roses, white and purple orchids, yellow padauk, and many other flowers.

　Which variety did she and her husband exchange? One wants to guess they gave each other many kinds. But the answer lies only in their hearts — the flower worn on each of their birthdays, one imagines. When photos appear on her birthday, why not take a look at her hair ornament too?