First Lady Melania Trump gifted Japan’s empress, a Belmont High School graduate and former Harvard University student, a desk set that included a fountain pen made from an oak tree that stands on the university’s Cambridge campus during a state visit to Japan.
Empress Masako, who studied economics at the Ivy League institution in the early 1980s, presented the first lady with an ornamental box with a traditional Japanese design in return.
Emperor Naruhito presented President Donald Trump with a traditional Japanese pottery and porcelain bowl. Trump gave the emperor an American-made viola in a custom case handmade in Charleston, W.Va., and a photo of U.S. composer Aaron Copland.
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The foursome also exchanged photos. The Imperial Palace has a longstanding custom of the emperor and empress exchanging signed, framed photographs with their guests during state visits.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.