of
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 ...
, was the founder of a
collateral branch of the
Japanese imperial family.
Biography
Prince Hirotsune was the twelfth son of
Prince Fushimi Kuniye (1802–1875).
Hirotsune's father was the twentieth head of the
Fushimi-no-miya, which was the oldest of the four branches of the imperial dynasty allowed to provide a successor to the
Chrysanthemum throne if the main imperial house should fail to produce an heir.
[Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Fushimi-no-miya''" in .]
As he was born when the country was still under rule by the
Tokugawa Bakufu, he was sent on 12 October 1852 into the
Buddhist priesthood, and assigned to serve at the ''
monzeki'' temple of
Chion-in in Kyoto.
On 27 October 1860, he was recalled by
Emperor Kōmei, who formally adopted him as a potential heir to the throne. However, a few months later that same year, the 14th
Tokugawa Shōgun
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 ...
,
Tokugawa Iemochi, requested that a prince from the imperial family be assigned to the Tokugawa household as potential heir to the Shogunate. Prince Hirotsune was chosen for this role, but remained in Kyoto.
The
Meiji Restoration in 1868 eliminated the possibility that he would become Shōgun, and Prince Hirotsune returned to the Imperial household.
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 ...
granted him permission to start a new branch of the Imperial Family, and he took the name of Kachō-no-miya (from the mountain name of the temple of Chion-in).
Prince Hirotsune traveled to the
United States. He studied at the
United States Naval Academy at
Annapolis
Annapolis ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Maryland and the county seat of, and only incorporated city in, Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...
in 1870, but fell ill and returned to Japan in 1872. On 13 May 1876, he was commissioned as a
rear admiral
Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...
in the
Imperial Japanese Navy, but he died later that year.
His wife was Nambu Ikuko, daughter of
Count Nambu Toshihisa
Nambu may refer to:
Firearms
* Nambu pistol, a Japanese firearm
* New Nambu M60, a Japanese revolver
* New Nambu M66
* Nambu Type 90
* Type 94 Nambu pistol
* 7×20mm Nambu
* 8×22mm Nambu
People with the surname
* Chūhei Nambu
was a Jap ...
, the last ''
daimyō'' of
Morioka Domain. The couple had one son,
Prince Kachō Hiroatsu.
Notes
References
*
Jansen, Marius B. (2000). ''The Making of Modern Japan.'' Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
OCLC 44090600*
Keene, Donald. (2002). ''Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912.'' New York:
Columbia University Press.
OCLC 46731178* Lebra, Sugiyama Takie. ''Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility''. University of California Press (1995).
* Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005)
''Japan encyclopedia.''Cambridge:
Harvard University Press.
OCLC 58053128
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirotsune, Kacho
1851 births
1876 deaths
Kachō-no-miya
Japanese princes
People from Kyoto
Imperial Japanese Navy admirals
People of Meiji-period Japan