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 second head of a collateral branch 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 ...

. He was formerly enshrined in Tainan-Jinja, Taiwan, under the name ''Kitashirakawa no Miya Yoshihisa-shinnō no Mikoto'' as the main and only deity.

Biography

Early life

Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa was the ninth 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) with Horiuchi Nobuko. He entered the

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 ...

priesthood under the title Rinnoji-no-miya. He served as abbot of

Kan'ei-ji (also spelled Kan'eiji or Kaneiji) is a Tendai Buddhist temple in Tokyo, Japan, founded in 1625 during the Kan'ei era by Tenkai, in an attempt to emulate the powerful religious center Enryaku-ji, in Kyoto. The main object of worship is .Nihon Re ...

in Edo.

Bakumatsu period

During the unrest of the

Boshin War The , sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution or Japanese Civil War, was a civil war in Japan fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and a clique seeking to seize political power in the name of the Imperi ...

to overthrow the

Tokugawa shogunate 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 Encyclopedia ...

, Prince Yoshihisa fled north with Tokugawa partisans of the following the

Satsuma Satsuma may refer to: * Satsuma (fruit), a citrus fruit * ''Satsuma'' (gastropod), a genus of land snails Places Japan * Satsuma, Kagoshima, a Japanese town * Satsuma District, Kagoshima, a district in Kagoshima Prefecture * Satsuma Domain, a sou ...

- Chōshū takeover of the city of Edo, and was made the nominal head of the "Northern Alliance" ''(

Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei The was a Japanese military-political coalition established and disestablished over the course of several months in early to mid-1868 during the Boshin War. Its flag was either a white interwoven five-pointed star on a black field, or a black i ...

).'' This short-lived alliance consisted of almost all of the domains of northern Japan under the leadership of

Date Yoshikuni was a late-Edo period Japanese samurai, and the 13th ''daimyō'' of Sendai Domain in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan, the 29th hereditary chieftain of the Date clan. He is known primarily for his role as commander-in-chief of the Ōuetsu Re ...

Sendai is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, desig ...

. Documents exist which name Prince Yoshihisa as , and delineate the holders of the chief positions of a new, northern court; however, historians are divided as to whether or not Prince Yoshihisa was actually named emperor. Depending on the source, Prince Yoshihisa's planned era name (''

nengō The , also known as , is the first of the two elements that identify years in the Japanese era calendar scheme. The second element is a number which indicates the year number within the era (with the first year being ""), followed by the literal ...

'') is believed to have been either ''Taisei'' (大政) or ''Enju'' (延寿). 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 ...

, in 1873

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 ...

recalled all imperial princes currently serving as

priests back to secular status. That same year he succeeded his younger brother,

Prince Kitashirakawa Kasunari was the founder of a collateral branch of the Japanese imperial family. Early life Prince Kitashirakawa Satonari was born in Kyoto, and was the thirteenth son of Prince Fushimi Kuniie (1802–1872), the twentieth head of the Fushimi-no-miya, th ...

, as the second head of the new princely house of Kitashirakawa-no-miya.

Marriage and family

On 10 July 1886, Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa married Shimazu Tomiko (1 October 1862 – 20 March 1936), the adopted daughter of Prince

Shimazu Hisamitsu Prince , also known as , was a Japanese samurai of the late Edo period. Hisamitsu was virtual Super Potentate of Satsuma Domain. The younger brother of Shimazu Nariakira, Hisamitsu served as regent for his underage son Tadayoshi, who became the ...

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, ...

. The marriage produced one child: *

Prince Kitashirakawa Naruhisa , was the 3rd head of a collateral branch of the Japanese Imperial Family. Early life Prince Naruhisa was the son of Prince Yoshihisa Kitashirakawa and Princess Tomiko.Takenobu, Yoshitaro. (1906). Prince Naruhisa succeeded as head of the hous ...

(18 April 1887 – 2 April 1923) Also, Prince Yoshihisa had five sons and five daughters by various

concubine Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive. Concubi ...

s, as was common practice for the time: * Prince Tsunehisa Takeda (22 September 1882 – 23 April 1919) * Prince Nobuhisa (28 August 1885 – 28 June 1886) * Countess Kanroji Mitsuko (19 October 1885 – 16 July 1975) * Count Futara Yoshiaki (26 October 1886 – 18 April 1909) * Countess Arima Sadako (6 August 1887 – 16 August 1964) * Marquis Komatsu Teruhisa (2 August 1888 – 5 November 1970) * Viscountess Hoshina Takeko (28 March 1890 – 18 March 1977) * Count Ueno Masao (16 July 1890 – 16 February 1965) * Princess Kotoko (20 December 1891 – 22 January 1892) * Countess Futara Hiroko (28 May 1895 – 7 March 1990)

Military career

Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa became a professional soldier, and was sent to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

for military training. On his return to Japan in 1887, he was commissioned as a

major general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

in the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

. In 1893, as

lieutenant general Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

, he was given command of the 4th Division. After the outbreak of 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 ...

of 1894-1895, he was transferred to the elite 1st Division and participated in the Japanese invasion of Taiwan. During the invasion, he contracted

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

and died outside of

Tainan Tainan (), officially Tainan City, is a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality in southern Taiwan facing the Taiwan Strait on its western coast. Tainan is the oldest city on the island and also commonly known as the "Capital City" ...

(although there were rumors that he was killed in action by Taiwanese guerrillas). Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa is thus the first member of the Japanese imperial family known to have died outside Japan, and the first (in modern times) to have died in war. Under

State Shinto was Imperial Japan's ideological use of the Japanese folk religion and traditions of Shinto. The state exercised control of shrine finances and training regimes for priests to strongly encourage Shinto practices that emphasized the Emperor as ...

, he was elevated to a ''

kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

,'' and was enshrined in most of the

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 ...

s erected in Taiwan under Japanese rule, as well as in

Yasukuni Jinja is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Emperor Meiji in June 1869 and commemorates those who died in service of Japan, from the Boshin War of 1868–1869, to the two Sino-Japanese Wars, 1894–1895 and 1937–1945 resp ...

Honours

National

Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight f ...

, ''31 December 1875'' * Grand Cordon of the

Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum is Japan's highest order. The Grand Cordon of the Order was established in 1876 by Emperor Meiji of Japan; the Collar of the Order was added on 4 January 1888. Unlike its European counterparts, the order may be conferred posthumously. Apart ...

, ''29 December 1886'' * Collar of the Order of the Chrysanthemum, ''1 November 1895''; posthumous *

Order of the Golden Kite The was an order of the Empire of Japan, established on 12 February 1890 by Emperor Meiji "in commemoration of Jimmu Tennō, the Romulus of Japan". It was officially abolished 1947 by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) during th ...

, 3rd class, ''1 November 1895''; posthumous

Foreign

* : ** : *** Knight of the Prussian Crown, 1st Class, ''9 June 1881'' *** Grand Cross of the Red Eagle, ''2 December 1889'' **

Mecklenburg Mecklenburg (; nds, label=Low German, Mękel(n)borg ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schwerin ...

: *** Grand Cross of the Griffon, ''10 February 1885'' *** Grand Cross of the Wendish Crown with Crown in Ore, ''24 April 1895'' * : Knight Grand Cross of the Kamehameha I, ''27 March 1883'' * :

Order of St. Alexander Nevsky The Imperial Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky was an order of chivalry of the Russian Empire first awarded on by Empress Catherine I of Russia. History The introduction of the Imperial Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky was envisioned by Empero ...

, ''11 April 1892'' * : Knight Grand Cross of the Leopold, ''21 August 1893''

Gallery

File:HIH Kitashirakawa Tomiko.jpg, HIH Princess Kitashirakawa Tomiko, consort File:HIH Kitashirakawa Naruhisa.jpg, HIH Prince Kitashirakawa Naruhisa, heir

Notes

References

* * * Jansen, Marius B. (2000). ''The Making of Modern Japan''. Cambridge:

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

.
OCLC 44090600
* Keene, Donald. (2002). ''Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852–1912''. New York:

Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fiel ...

.
OCLC 46731178
* * Takenobu, Yoshitaro. (1906). ''The Japan Year Book''. Tokyo: Japan Year Book Office
OCLC 1771764
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa, Prince 1847 births 1895 deaths Kitashirakawa-no-miya Japanese princes Japanese generals Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei Meiji Restoration Members of the House of Peers (Japan) People of the Boshin War Japanese military personnel of the First Sino-Japanese War People of Meiji-period Japan People from Kyoto Prefecture Deified Japanese people Grand Cordons of the Order of the Rising Sun Recipients of the Order of the Golden Kite