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. 58
retrieved 2013-8-13. The Takatsukasa was a branch of 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 ...

Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)
"Takatsukasa-ke"
in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 937. and one 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 ...

, from which

Sesshō and Kampaku In Japan, was a title given to a regent who was named to act on behalf of either a child Emperor before his coming of age, or an empress regnant. The was theoretically a sort of chief advisor for the Emperor, but was in practice the title of ...

could be chosen. The family crest of Takatsukasa is

peony The peony or paeony is a flowering plant in the genus ''Paeonia'' , the only genus in the family Paeoniaceae . Peonies are native to Asia, Europe and Western North America. Scientists differ on the number of species that can be distinguished, ...

History

The Takatsukasa family was founded by

Fujiwara no Kanehira Fujiwara (, written: 藤原 lit. "''Wisteria'' field") is a Japanese surname. (In English conversation it is likely to be rendered as .) Notable people with the surname include: ; Families * The Fujiwara clan and its members ** Fujiwara no Kamatari ...

(1228-1294), who was the sixth son of

Konoe Iezane , son of Motomichi, was a court noble ('' Kugyō'') of the early Kamakura period. His sons include: Takatsukasa Kanehira, and Konoe Kanetsune. In 1206 when Kujō Yoshitune died, he became the head of the Fujiwara family and Sesshō. The same y ...

; he was also the first to take this family name, named after the section of

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 ...

in which the household resided. The Takatsukasa family, for the first time, died out in the

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

following the death of Tadafuyu, 13th head of the family, in 1546. Later in 1579, with the assistance of

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unify ...

, the third son of

Nijō Haruyoshi , son of regent Nijō Korefusa, was a Japanese '' kugyō'' (court noble) of the Muromachi period (1336–1573). He held a regent position kampaku two times from 1548 to 1553 and from 1568 to 1578. He married a daughter of prince Fushimi-no-miya Sa ...

took the name

Takatsukasa Nobufusa was a court noble (''kuge'') of the early Edo period. Born to Nijō Haruyoshi and adopted by Takatsukasa Tadafuyu, he revived the lineage of the Takatsukasa family. In 1606 he was appointed Kampaku, a regent position which he left two years late ...

and revived the household. Nobufusa's daughter Takako married

Iemitsu Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川家光, August 12, 1604 – June 8, 1651) was the third ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada with Oeyo, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lady Kasuga was his wet nurse, who a ...

, the third

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 ...

. In 1884, Hiromichi, the head of the Takatsukasa family, became a prince in the

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 ' ...

system. In 1950, Princess Kazuko, the third daughter of

Hirohito Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

(the Emperor Showa) married

Toshimichi Takatsukasa , son of Duke Nobusuke, was a Japanese researcher of trains. He was a descendant of Tokugawa Yoshinao and consequently was born into an aristocratic family, but, like all Japanese aristocrats, lost his title with the post-war legal reforms of 194 ...

, but the couple had no children.

Family Tree

First Creation (1252-1546)

Second Creation (1579-present)

Takatsukasa-Matsudaira (Yoshii) family

The was a cadet branch of both Takatsukasa and the Kishū-Tokugawa family, founded by , the youngest son of

. Because of his sister's marriage to the ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...

Tokugawa Iemitsu Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川家光, August 12, 1604 – June 8, 1651) was the third ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty. He was the eldest son of Tokugawa Hidetada with Oeyo, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Lady Kasuga was his wet nurse, who a ...

since 1623, Nobuhira moved to

Edo Edo ( ja, , , "bay-entrance" or "estuary"), also romanized as Jedo, Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of Tokyo. Edo, formerly a ''jōkamachi'' (castle town) centered on Edo Castle located in Musashi Province, became the ''de facto'' capital of ...

in 1650; Iemitsu welcomed his brother-in-law and granted him the rank

hatamoto A was a high ranking samurai in the direct service of the Tokugawa shogunate of feudal Japan. While all three of the shogunates in Japanese history had official retainers, in the two preceding ones, they were referred to as ''gokenin.'' However ...

. Arranged by Iemitsu's successor

Tokugawa Ietsuna was the fourth ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty of Japan who was in office from 1651 to 1680. He is considered the eldest son of Tokugawa Iemitsu, which makes him the grandson of Tokugawa Hidetada and the great-grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. E ...

, in 1653, Nobuhira married Matsuhime, the second daughter of

Tokugawa Yorinobu was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the early Edo period. Born under the name Nagatomimaru (長福丸), he was the 10th son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, by his concubine Kageyama-dono. On December 8, 1603, Yorinobu received the fief of Mito, then rated at 20 ...

; as a close relative of the

Tokugawa clan The is a Japanese dynasty that was formerly a powerful ''daimyō'' family. They nominally descended from Emperor Seiwa (850–880) and were a branch of the Minamoto clan (Seiwa Genji) through the Matsudaira clan. The early history of this clan r ...

, Nobuhira was later allowed to adopt the family name Matsudaira by the next year. During the era of Meiji, the family name was changed to Yoshii (吉井), named after the family's fief

Yoshii Domain was a feudal domain under the Tokugawa shogunate of Edo period Japan, located in Kōzuke Province (modern-day Gunma Prefecture), Japan. It was centered on Yoshii ''jin'ya'' in what is now part of the city of Takasaki, Gunma. Yoshii was ruled thr ...

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 ...

References

External links

Takatsukasa ''kamon'' at Harimaya.com
Japanese clans Fujiwara clan {{Japan-clan-stub