, born , was the eleventh child and seventh daughter of

Emperor Meiji , also called or , was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession. Reigning from 13 February 1867 to his death, he was the first monarch of the Empire of Japan and presided over the Meiji era. He was the figur ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, and the fourth child and third daughter of

Sono Sachiko Sono Sachiko (園祥子) (December 23, 1867 – July 7, 1947) was the fifth concubine of Emperor Meiji of Japan. Although Meiji was the last Japanese emperor to have more than one consort, the official role at court was not abolished until 1924; ...

, the Emperor's fifth concubine.

Biography

Fusako was born in Tokyo, the daughter of

and Lady

Sachiko is a feminine Japanese given name that means "''child of bliss''." It also means "''happiness''" when it is written with the kanji characters 幸子. One common short form of the name is ''Sachi''. People * Sachiko, Princess Hisa (久宮祐子� ...

. Fusako held the childhood appellation "Kane no miya" (Princess Kane). On 29 April 1909, Princess Kane married Prince Kitashirakawa (1887–1923), the son of

Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa of Japan, was the second head of a collateral branch of the Japanese imperial family. He was formerly enshrined in Tainan-Jinja, Taiwan, under the name ''Kitashirakawa no Miya Yoshihisa-shinnō no Mikoto'' as the main and only deity. Biograp ...

and Princess Tomiko. Prince Naruhisa succeeded as head of the house of

Kitashirakawa-no-miya The Kitashirakawa (北白川) ''ōke'' (princely house) was the fifth oldest branch of the Japanese Imperial Family created from branches of the Fushimi-no-miya The is the oldest of the four shinnōke, branches of the Imperial Family of Japa ...

after the death of his father in November 1895 during the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the po ...

. Prince and Princess Kitashirakawa had one son and three daughters: * * ; married Viscount Tachibana Tanekatsu * ; married Viscount Higashizono Motofumi * ; married Tokugawa Yoshihisa. In October 1947, the Kitashirakawa and the other branches of the Japanese Imperial Family were divested of their titles and privileges during the

American occupation of Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United States wi ...

and became commoners. The former princess served as custodian and chief priestess of the

Ise Shrine The , located in Ise, Mie Prefecture of Japan, is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu. Officially known simply as , Ise Jingū is a shrine complex composed of many Shinto shrines centered on two main shrines, and . The Inner ...

until her death on 11 August 1974, aged 84.

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitashirakawa, Fusako 1890 births 1974 deaths Japanese princesses Grand Cordons (Imperial Family) of the Order of the Precious Crown 19th-century Japanese people 19th-century Japanese women 20th-century Japanese people 20th-century Japanese women People from Tokyo Japanese priestesses