Prince , was a Japanese nobleman who served the

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji o ...

as a court official and member of House of Peers.

Biography

Nijō Motohiro was born in Kyoto as the eighth son of

Kujō Hisatada , son of Nijō Harutaka, was a ''kuge'' or Japanese court noble of the Edo period (1603–1868). He was adopted by his brother Suketsugu as his son. He held a regent position kampaku from 1856 to 1862, and retired in 1863, becoming a buddhist mo ...

. He was adopted by

Nijō Narinobu , son of Nijō Harutaka, was a Japanese '' kugyō'' (court noble) of the Edo period (1603–1868). He married a Tokugawa Juko (1796-1844), daughter of the seventh head of Mito Domain Tokugawa Harutoshi was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Edo per ...

, another of the

five regent houses The Five Regent Houses (五摂家; ''go-sekke'') is a collective term for the five families of the Fujiwara clan that monopolized the regent position of '' Sekkan'' in Japan from 1252 until 1868. The five houses are Konoe, Takatsukasa, Kujō, Ic ...

, to carry on the

Nijō family is a Japanese aristocratic kin group. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Nijō," ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 42 retrieved 2013-7-7. The Nijō was a branch of the Fuji ...

name. His wife was a daughter of

Maeda Nariyasu was an Edo period Japanese samurai, and the 12th ''daimyō'' of Kaga Domain in the Hokuriku region of Japan. He was the 13th hereditary lord of the Kanazawa Maeda clan. Biography Nariyasu was born in Kanazawa in 1811,

, twelfth head of

Kaga Domain The , also known as the , was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1583 to 1871.

. Their son was Nijō Atsumoto. On July 7, 1869 as part of the reformation of the court nobility under the new

, Nijō Motohiro became a

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 ...

(''koshaku'') under the new ''

kazoku The was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan, which existed between 1869 and 1947. They succeeded the feudal lords () and court nobles (), but were abolished with the 1947 constitution. Kazoku ( 華族) should not be confused with ' ...

'' peerage system. The change was regarded as a demotion by Nijō and many members of the old aristocracy, however, Nijō continued to serve

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 ...

as a court councilor. From September 1890 until January 1920, Nijō served as a member of the House of Peers. Together with Konoe Atsumarō, Nijō was a leader of the ''Sanyōkai'' faction within the upper house, which was critical of

Itō Hirobumi was a Japanese politician and statesman who served as the first Prime Minister of Japan. He was also a leading member of the ''genrō'', a group of senior statesmen that dictated Japanese policy during the Meiji era. A London-educated samur ...

’s pro-'' Jiyutō'' politics, plans for increased military expenditures after 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 ...

, and plans for tax reform.Banno, ''Establishment of the Japanese Constitutional System'' pg.108 He later served as high priest of

Kasuga-taisha is a Shinto shrine in Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan. It is the shrine of the Fujiwara family, established in 768 CE and rebuilt several times over the centuries. The interior is famous for its many bronze lanterns, as well as the many stone lan ...

, the

Fujiwara clan was a powerful family of imperial regents in Japan, descending from the Nakatomi clan and, as legend held, through them their ancestral god Ame-no-Koyane. The Fujiwara prospered since the ancient times and dominated the imperial court until th ...

’s ancestral

Shinto shrine A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The '' honden''Also called (本殿, meani ...

Nara The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...

. Nijō was very interested in the development of

Hokkaidō is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

, and headed the ''Hokkaidō Kyōkai-kai''. Another of his interests was

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

, and he was vice-chairman of the Japan Photography Association headed by

Tokugawa Atsuyoshi Tokugawa may refer to: *Tokugawa era, an alternative term for the Edo period, 1603 to 1868 *Tokugawa shogunate, a feudal regime of Japan during the Edo period **Tokugawa clan, a powerful family of Japan ***Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616), most nota ...

References

* Banno, Junji. Establishment of the Japanese Constitutional System. Routledge (1992) * *

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nijo, Motohiro 1859 births 1928 deaths Fujiwara clan Motohiro People of Meiji-period Japan Kazoku Members of the House of Peers (Japan)