I've really been enjoying this. But in a way, I've never seen what the huge deal is. I mean, OK, so the tradition is a woman dowager emperor never gets married and all, presumably because if she did she could have a son who would be a potential rival claimant to the throne and stuff. But I'm sure at a less official level the tradition has also been that she'd have a lover if she wanted--someone discreet, ideally a respectable staff member of good family, well bred, well educated, capable of maintaining polite fictions. You know, like Misono.