Prince A prince is a 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, in some European states. ...

was the 13th head of the

Mito branch The is a branch of the Tokugawa clan based in Mito, Ibaraki. History Following the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu appointed his eleventh son, Tokugawa Yorifusa, as ''daimyō'' in 1608. With his appointment, ...

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 cl ...

and the President of the House of Peers in the

Diet of Japan The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paral ...

Biography

Kuniyuki Tokugawa inherited the title of ''shishaku'' (侯爵, marquis) under 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 system on the death of his father, Tokugawa Atsuyoshi in 1898. A scholar, he turned his attention in 1906 to the completion of the ''

Dai Nihonshi The ''Dai Nihonshi'' (大日本史), literally ''History of Great Japan'', is a book on the history of Japan. It was begun in the 17th century, during the Edo period, by Tokugawa Mitsukuni, the head of the Mito branch of the Tokugawa family. Aft ...

'', a comprehensive history of Japan begun by his ancestor,

Tokugawa Mitsukuni , also known as , was a Japanese daimyo who was known for his influence in the politics of the early Edo period. He was the third son of Tokugawa Yorifusa (who in turn was the eleventh son of Tokugawa Ieyasu) and succeeded him, becoming the sec ...

in the 17th century. However, in 1910, he was accepted into the 22nd class of the

Imperial Japanese Army Academy The was the principal officer's training school for the Imperial Japanese Army. The programme consisted of a junior course for graduates of local army cadet schools and for those who had completed four years of middle school, and a senior course f ...

, and was commissioned as

Second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army unt ...

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 Emper ...

. He resigned his commission in 1914 citing health reasons, and went into the reserves in 1915. From December 1911, Kuniyuki Tokugawa served as a member of the House of Peers of the

. On the completion of the ''

'' in 1929, he was awarded the title of ''koshaku'' (公爵, prince). On June 25, 1940, he accepted the post of honorary president of

Japanese Red Cross The is the Japanese affiliate of the International Red Cross. The Imperial Family of Japan traditionally has supported the society, with the Empress as Honorary President and other imperial family members as vice presidents. Its headquarters i ...

Society. From October 11, 1944, to June 19, 1946, he served as the President of the House of Peers. On his death in 1969, he was succeeded as head of the Mito branch of the Tokugawa clan by Kuninari Tokugawa.

References

* Banno, Junji. ''The Establishment of the Japanese Constitutional System''. Routledge (1992). *Lebra, Sugiyama Takie. ''Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility''. University of California Press (1995). * Sims, Richard. ''Japanese Political History Since the Meiji Renovation 1868–2000''. Palgrave Macmillan.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tokugawa, Kuniyuki 1886 births 1969 deaths Kazoku Mito-Tokugawa family Members of the House of Peers (Japan)