(22 October 1816 – 17 February 1898) was a Japanese diplomat, and the founder of the Yamashina 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 ...

Early life

Prince Akira was born in

Kyoto Kyoto (; 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 metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

, the eldest son of

Prince Fushimi Kuniie was Japanese royalty. He was the 20th/23rd prince Fushimi-no-miya and the eldest son of Prince Fushimi Sadayuki (1776–1841) and his concubine Seiko, which made him an 11th cousin of Emperor Sakuramachi. Despite being merely a distant cousin to ...

(1802–1875) and Fujigi Hisako (藤木寿子). Prince Kuniie was the twentieth 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, th ...

, 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. Hisako was a Nyōbō, a rank of the prince's

Lady-in-waiting A lady-in-waiting or court lady is a female personal assistant at a court, attending on a royal woman or a high-ranking noblewoman. Historically, in Europe, a lady-in-waiting was often a noblewoman but of lower rank than the woman to whom sh ...

. Soon after his birth, he was regarded as the ninth son of his grandfather, Prince Asahiko, though this adoption was annulled far later in 1889 and he became his father's eldest son again. It was not until 1835 that Prince Kuniie officially married Takatsukasa Hiroko (鷹司景子), and they had two sons, Sadanori and Sadanaru; this made Prince Akira unable to succeed the Fushimi-no-miya. He was thus also a half-brother 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 grea ...

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. Biogra ...

, and

Prince Kan'in Kotohito was the sixth head of a cadet branch of the Japanese imperial family, and a career army officer who served as Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff from 1931 to 1940. During his tenure as the Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army Gene ...

Buddhist priest

From an early age, Prince Akira was groomed to pursue a career as 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, the traditional career path for non-heir sons in the ''

Shinnōke was the collective name for the four cadet branches of the Imperial family of Japan, which were until 1947 entitled to provide a successor to the Chrysanthemum throne if the main line failed to produce an heir. The heads of these royal houses h ...

'' during the

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 ...

. At the age of two, he was officially 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 ...

(1779–1817;, died in 1840) as a potential heir. Prince Akira took the

tonsure Tonsure () is the practice of cutting or shaving some or all of the hair on the scalp as a sign of religious devotion or humility. The term originates from the Latin word ' (meaning "clipping" or "shearing") and referred to a specific practice in ...

and entered the priesthood under the title Saihan Hoshinnō. He was later appointed prince-abbot of 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 Kajū-ji in Yamashina, outside of Kyoto. In 1842, he angered the

Tokugawa bakufu The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedi ...

, which stripped him of his post and confined him to the temple of

Tō-ji , also known as is a Shingon Buddhist temple in the Minami-ku ward of Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 796, it was one of the only three Buddhist temples allowed in the city at the time it became the capital of Japan. As such it has a long history, h ...

. In 1864, the Tokugawa government reinstated him to his former post. However, with the growing movement to overthrow the Tokugawa government in the years leading up to 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 ...

Emperor Kōmei was the 121st Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'')孝明天皇 (121)/ref> Kōmei's reign spanned the years from 1846 through 1867, corresponding to the final years of the ...

returned him to secular status, adopted him as a potential heir, and created the title "Yamashina-no-miya" as a new branch of the Imperial house in 1858.

Meiji period

After the Meiji restoration, Prince Yamashina served the new

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 diplomat, assisting in the opening of

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...

to foreign trade, and meeting with foreign dignitaries and royalty. He was one of the few Imperial princes to refuse a military commission, remaining a civilian all his life.

Marriage and family

Prince Yamashina Akira never officially married, but he had a least one concubine, Nakajō Chieko (中條千枝子). A son,

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 ...

(3 July 1873 – 2 May 1908) was born to Prince Yamashina Akira and Nakajō Chieko. Kikumaro was officially adopted to carry on the Yamashina line.

References

# 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) # https://web.archive.org/web/20150602063650/http://www.geocities.jp/ahmadjan_aqsaqal/ssr/1k3/ku630001.html#boutou {{DEFAULTSORT:Yamashina Akira, Prince 1816 births 1898 deaths Yamashina-no-miya Japanese princes People from Kyoto People of Meiji-period Japan