Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...

Senior first rank The court ranks of Japan, also known in Japanese as ''ikai'' (位階), are indications of an individual's court rank in Japan based on the system of the state. ''Ikai'' as a system was originally used in the Ritsuryo system, which was the politi ...

, son of Motosaki, was a ''

kugyō is the collective term for the very few most powerful men attached to the court of the Emperor of Japan in pre- Meiji eras. The term generally referred to the and court officials and denoted a court rank between First Rank and Third Rank un ...

'' or Japanese court noble of the late

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

(1603–1868). He held a regent position kampaku from 1862 to 1863. His consort was Shimazu Kyoko, an adopted daughter of

Shimazu Narioki was a Japanese feudal lord (''daimyō'') of the Edo period, the 27th in the line of Shimazu clan lords of Satsuma Domain (r. 1809–1851). He was the father of Shimazu Nariakira, Shimazu Hisamitsu Prince , also known as , was a Japanese samur ...

, tenth head of

Satsuma Domain The , briefly known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1602 to 1871. The Satsuma Domain was based at Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma Province, the core of the modern city of Kagoshima, ...

. With her he had sons Tadafusa and Atsumaro, who was later adopted by Tadafusa as his son. He adopted a daughter of

Shimazu Nariakira was a Japanese feudal lord (''daimyō'') of the Edo period, the 28th in the line of Shimazu clan lords of Satsuma Domain. He was renowned as an intelligent and wise lord, and was greatly interested in Western learning and technology. He was e ...

, named Atsuko or Atsuhime, who was a daughter of the Shimazu Imaizumi branch. After adoption Atsuhime changed her name to Fujiwara no Fumiko, and later she became a consort of

Tokugawa Iesada was the 13th ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He held office for five years from 1853 to 1858. He was physically weak and was therefore considered by later historians to have been unfit to be ''shōgun''. His reign marks the begin ...

and took the name Tenshōin. Following the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

, he was granted the title of prince.

Honors

''Translated from the article in the Japanese Wikipedia'' *Prince (1884) *Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (March 1885) *Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers (26 September 1895)

Order of precedence

*Senior fifth rank (26th day, second month of the 13th year of Bunka (1816)) *Fourth rank (28th day, third month of the 13th year of Bunka (1816) *Senior fourth rank (28th day, 12th month of the 13th year of Bunka (1816)) *Third rank (Seventh day, third month of the 14th year of Bunka (1817) *Senior third rank (11th day, eighth month of the fourth year of Bunsei (1821)) *Second rank (16th day, third month of the sixth year of Bunsei (1823)) *Senior second rank (Fourth day, sixth month of the seventh year of Bunsei (1824)) *First rank (Fifth day, sixth month of the fifth year of Tenpo (1834), later entered Buddhist orders and was restored to the rank on the seventh day, sixth month of the second year of Bunkyu (1862)) *Senior first rank (17 March 1904; posthumous)

References

* 1808 births 1898 deaths Fujiwara clan Kazoku Konoe family {{japan-noble-stub