Japanese Imperial families in Kyoto Imperial Palace

Emperor-Hirohito-and-Miyake-Cadet-Royal-Families

The , also known as the ''Old Imperial Family'' (旧皇族), were branches 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 ...

created from branches 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 ...

house, the last surviving

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 ...

cadet branch. All but one of these ''ōke'' (王家) were formed by the descendants of

Prince Fushimi Kuniye 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 ...

. The ōke were stripped of their membership in the

Imperial Family A royal family is the immediate family of King, kings/Queen regnant, queens, Emir, emirs/emiras, Sultan, sultans/Sultana (title), sultanas, or raja/rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the ...

by the American Occupation Authorities in October 1947, as part of the abolition of collateral imperial houses. After that point, only the immediate family 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 ...

and those of his three brothers retained membership in the Imperial Family. However, unofficial heads of these collateral families still exist for most and are listed herein. In recent years, conservatives have proposed to reinstate several of the former imperial branches or else to allow the imperial family to adopt male members of the former princely houses, as a solution to the

Japanese succession controversy From 2005 to 2012, Japan discussed the possibility of changing the laws of succession to the Chrysanthemum Throne, which is currently limited to males of the Japanese Imperial Family. As of 2021, there are three people in the line of success ...

List of ōke

The ''kyū-miyake'' were, in order of founding: * Nashimoto (梨本) - went extinct in 1951 * Kuni (久邇) * Yamashina (山階) - went extinct in 1987 * Kachō (華頂) - went extinct in 1924 * Kitashirakawa (北白川) - went extinct in 2018 * Higashifushimi or Komatsu (東伏見 / 小松) - went extinct in 1922 *

Kaya Kaya may refer to: People *Kaya (given name) *Kaya (surname) Places *Kaya, Burkina Faso, a town in Burkina Faso, capital of the department *Kaya Airport, serving the town * Kaya Department, a department or commune of Sanmatenga Province in centr ...

(賀陽) * Asaka (朝香) * Higashikuni (東久邇) *

Takeda is a Japanese family name.1990 Census Name Files< ...

(竹田) Unless otherwise stated, all princes listed herein are the sons of their predecessor.

Nashimoto-no-miya

The Nashimoto-no-miya house was formed by Prince Moriosa, son of Prince Fushimi Sadayoshi (father of

)

Kuni-no-miya

The Kuni-no-miya house was formed by Prince Asahiko, fourth son of

Yamashina-no-miya

The Yamashina-no-miya house was formed by Prince Akira, eldest son of

. The Yamashina-no-miya became extinct with the death of Yamashina Takehiko.

Kachō-no-miya

The Kachō-no-miya house was formed by Prince Hirotsune, son of

. The Kachō-no-miya became extinct with the death of Prince Kachō Hirotada. The line of descent was continued through 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 ' ...

peerage under Kachō Hironobu.

Kitashirakawa-no-miya

The Kitashirakawa-no-miya house was formed by Prince Satonari, thirteenth son of

. The Kitashirakawa-no-miya became extinct with the death of Kitashirakawa Michihisa without heirs on 20 October 2018.

Higashifushimi-no-miya / Komatsu-no-miya

The Higashifushimi-no-miya or the Komatsu-no-miya house was formed by Prince Yoshiaki, seventh son of

. In 1931,

Emperor 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 ...

directed his brother-in-law,

Prince Kuni Kunihide Count was the titular head of the Higashifushimi-no-miya, an extinct branch of the Imperial House of Japan, and a Buddhist monk. He was the youngest brother of Empress Kōjun and was the maternal uncle of Emperor Emeritus Akihito. If he had k ...

, to leave Imperial Family status and become

Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

Higashifushimi Kunihide (''hakushaku'' under the ''

'' peerage system), to prevent the Higashifushimi name from extinction. Dowager Princess Higashifushimi Kaneko became a commoner on 14 October 1947. She died in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

in 1955.

Kaya-no-miya

The Kaya-no-miya house was formed by Prince Kuninori, second 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 grea ...

(first Kuni-no-miya, see above)

Asaka-no-miya

The Asaka-no-miya house was formed by Prince Yasuhiko, eighth son of

Higashikuni-no-miya

The Higashikuni-no-miya house was formed by Prince Naruhiko, ninth son of

. Prince Higashikuni Nobuhiko became simply "Higashikuni Nobuhiko" after the abolition of the Japanese aristocracy during the American occupation of Japan in 1947.

Takeda-no-miya

The Takeda-no-miya house was formed by Prince Tsunehisa, eldest son of

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. Biograp ...

(second Kitashirakawa-no-miya).

Proposal for reinstatement

In January 2005, Prime Minister

Junichiro Koizumi Junichiro Koizumi (; , ''Koizumi Jun'ichirō'' ; born 8 January 1942) is a former Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2001 to 2006. He retired from politics in 2009. He is ...

set up a panel consisting of 10 experts from various fields to discuss the succession law and possible ways to ensure stable succession in the imperial family. At that point, no male heir had been born to the Imperial family in 40 years, prompting concerns that there wouldn't be anyone to succeed

Crown Prince Naruhito is the current Emperor of Japan. He acceded to the Chrysanthemum Throne on 1 May 2019, beginning the Reiwa era, following the abdication of his father, Akihito. He is the 126th monarch according to Japan's traditional order of succession. ...

after he became emperor. The panel recommended giving eligibility to females and their descendants, that the first child, regardless of sex, be given priority in ascension, and that female family members who marry commoners be allowed to retain their imperial family member status. Itsuo Sonobe, deputy chairman of the 10-member government panel and a former Supreme Court justice, said that one of the panel's main concerns had been to find a solution that would win the people's support. Media opinion polls showed an overwhelming majority favoring the change, but the proposed revision was met with fierce opposition from conservatives, who held that the imperial dynasty, which had survived in an unbroken line stretching for nearly 2700 years, could not be dismissed and ended by a wave of deracinated modernity and uncaring

recentism Chronocentrism is the assumption that certain time periods (typically the present) are better, more important, or a more significant frame of reference than other time periods, either past or future. The perception of more positive attributes su ...

. They proposed instead that the government take recourse to ancient traditions under which such situations had been handled in the past. They pointed out that various branches of the old imperial family do still exist in Japan, and that the constitutional definition of the "imperial family" which prevails today was imposed by the occupying western forces as recently as 1947. They maintained that, rather than ending the ancient imperial dynasty, it would be more sensible and less radical to end the recent, western-imposed restrictions. , a member of the former Takeda-no-miya collateral house (nephew of the current family head and son of

Tsunekazu Takeda is a Japanese businessman, retired Olympic equestrian and the former President of the Japanese Olympic Committee, stepping down on 21 March 2019 amidst a corruption investigation. He also resigned as a member of the International Olympic Committ ...

) and author of a book entitled ''The Untold Truth of Imperial Family Members'', proposed to maintain the male line by restoring the former princely houses or by allowing imperial family members to adopt males from those families. Although Takeda has written that such men should feel a responsibility to maintain the royal house, he said he would find it daunting if asked to play that role himself. According to Takeda, the heads of the former court families agreed in late 2004, just before Koizumi's advisory panel started its discussions, not to speak out on the issue and some of them told him to "not get involved in political issues". Opponents of the reinstatement of former collateral branches, like Liberal Democratic Party politician

Yōichi Masuzoe is a Japanese politician who was elected to the position of governor of Tokyo in 2014 and resigned in June 2016 due to the misuse of public funds. He was previously a member of the Japanese House of Councillors and the Japanese Minister of Heal ...

, argued that it would favor members of families with tenuous blood links to long-ago emperors over contemporary female descendants of recent sovereigns. During a series of hearings on the succession problem in early 2012,

Yoshiko Sakurai is a Japanese journalist, TV presenter, and writer. She is also president of the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, established in 2007. Life Sakurai was born to Japanese parents in Vietnam. After returning with her family to Japan, sh ...

and Akira Momochi, conservative members of the panel of experts, rejected proposals for female members of the imperial family to be allowed to retain their royal status after marriage and create new branches of the imperial family, and instead suggested revising the Imperial Household Law so that male descendants of former imperial families which renounced their royal status in 1947 be allowed to return to the imperial family as adoptees. Another proposal was to reinstate four of the former imperial families, a solution opposed by the government on the grounds that it would not enjoy public support. Government sources told the ''

Yomiuri Shimbun The (lit. ''Reading-selling Newspaper'' or ''Selling by Reading Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are t ...

'' in May 2012 that the suggestion to reinstate men from the former princely houses as imperial family members through adoption had been unexpected. In September 2021, it was considered to amend the Imperial Household Law and allow the 85-year old Prince Hitachi to adopt a male member of the collateral branches of the imperial family.

References

Bibliography

* Fujitani, T. ''Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan''. University of California Press; Reprint edition (1998). * Lebra, Sugiyama Takie. ''Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility.'' University of California Press (1995).

External links

Japan's "Princess Problem"
– Website The Royal Universe {{DEFAULTSORT:Oke Japanese nobility