, was the founder of a collateral line of the

Japanese imperial family The , also referred to as the Imperial Family or the House of Yamato, comprises those members of the extended family of the reigning Emperor of Japan who undertake official and public duties. Under the present Constitution of Japan, the Emperor i ...

. Prince Moriosa was born in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area along wi ...

, the 10th son of

Prince Fushimi Sadayoshi A prince is a Monarch, 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 title, hereditary, in s ...

(1775–1841), the nineteenth head of the

Fushimi-no-miya The is the oldest of the four shinnōke, branches of the Imperial Family of Japan which were eligible to succeed to the Chrysanthemum Throne in the event that the main line should die out. The Fushimi-no-miya was founded by Prince Yoshihito, t ...

, the oldest of the four branches of the imperial dynasty allowed to provide a successor to the

Chrysanthemum throne The is the throne of the Emperor of Japan. The term also can refer to very specific seating, such as the throne in the Shishin-den at Kyoto Imperial Palace. Various other thrones or seats that are used by the Emperor during official functions ...

should the main imperial house fail to produce an heir. He was adopted by

Emperor Kōkaku was the 119th Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'')光格天皇 (119)/ref> Kōkaku reigned from 16 December 1780 until his abdication on 7 May 1817 in favor of his son, Empe ...

, but later became a

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

priest at the ''

monzeki ''Monzeki'' (門跡) were Japanese Buddhist priests of aristocratic or imperial lineage. The term was also applied to the temples in which they lived. An example of a ''monzeki'' temple is Daikaku-ji is a Shingon Buddhist temple in Uky� ...

'' temple of Emman-in. He was named ''Kajii-no-miya'' and rose to become head of the

Tendai , also known as the Tendai Lotus School (天台法華宗 ''Tendai hokke shū,'' sometimes just "''hokke shū''") is a Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition (with significant esoteric elements) officially established in Japan in 806 by the Japanese m ...

sect. After 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 ...

, in 1868, Emperor Meiji recalled him (along with all other Imperial princes residing in Buddhist temples) to secular status, and he resumed the

secular name A legal name is the name that identifies a person for legal, administrative and other official purposes. A person's legal birth name generally is the name of the person that was given for the purpose of registration of the birth and which then ap ...

''Moriosa-ō''. In 1870, Emperor Meiji granted him the title Nashimoto-no-miya and permission to form a new princely house (''

ōke The , also known as the ''Old Imperial Family'' (旧皇族), were branches of the Japanese Imperial Family created from branches of the Fushimi-no-miya house, the last surviving Shinnōke cadet branch. All but one of these ''ōke'' (王家) were ...

''). As Prince Nashimoto was childless, he adopted

Prince Yamashina Kikumaro , was the second head of the Yamashina-no-miya, a collateral line of the Japanese imperial family. Early life Prince Yamashina Kikumaro was the son of Prince Yamashina Akira. His mother was a concubine, Nakajo Chieko, but as Prince Akira had no ...

, the eldest son of

Prince Yamashina Akira (22 October 1816 – 17 February 1898) was a Japanese diplomat, and the founder of the Yamashina ōke, collateral line of the Imperial Household of Japan, Japanese imperial family. Early life Prince Akira was born in Kyoto, the eldest son o ...

, as his heir. Prince Nashimoto Moriosa died on 2 December 1885 but Prince Kikumaro remained in the

Yamashina-no-miya The (princely house) was the third oldest collateral branch ('' ōke'') of the Japanese Imperial Family created from the Fushimi-no-miya, the oldest of the four branches of the imperial dynasty allowed to provide a successor to the Chrysanthem ...

family, and the Nashimoto-no-miya title passed to Prince Morimasa, the fourth son of

Prince Kuni Asahiko was a member of a collateral line of the Japanese imperial family who played a key role in the Meiji Restoration. Prince Asahiko was an adopted son of Emperor Ninkō and later a close advisor to Emperor Kōmei and Emperor Meiji. He was the gre ...

instead.

References and further reading

* Keene, Donald. ''Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852–1912'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002) * Lebra, Takie Sugiyama. ''Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993) * Papinot Edmond. ''Historical and geographical dictionary of Japan'' (New York: F. Ungar Pub. Co., 1948) {{DEFAULTSORT:Nashimoto Moriosa, Prince 1819 births 1885 deaths Nashimoto-no-miya Japanese princes People from Kyoto