The was the youngest of the four

shinnōke was the collective name for the four cadet branches of the Imperial House 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 house ...

, branches of the Imperial Family of Japan which were eligible to succeed 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 ...

in the event that the main line should die out. It was founded by Prince Naohito, the son of Emperor Higashiyama. Fearing extinction of the Imperial Line, Arai Hakuseki proposed that a new branch of the

Imperial Family A royal family is the immediate family of monarch, monarchs and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or emperor, empress, and the term papal family describes the family of ...

be created. In 1718, retired emperor Reigen bestowed upon his grandson the title of Kan'in-no-miya and land worth 1000 ''

koku The is a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume. One koku is equivalent to 10 or approximately , or about of rice. It converts, in turn, to 100 shō and 1,000 gō. One ''gō'' is the traditional volume of a single serving of rice (before co ...

. '' This was the first new shinnōke formed since the Arisugawa-no-miya lineage in 1625. The name Kan'in-no-miya is thought to have come from the title of Prince Sadamoto, a son of the Heian-era Emperor Seiwa. Arai Hakusei's wisdom was soon proved with the second Kan'in-no-miya, Sukehito shinnō. When Emperor Go-Momozono died, he had only a single daughter. Sukehito's son was chosen to become Emperor Kōkaku. The Kan'in House became extinct upon the death of its 5th head, Prince Kan'in Naruhito, in 1842, but was revived by

Emperor Meiji , posthumously honored as , was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the List of emperors of Japan, traditional order of succession, reigning from 1867 until his death in 1912. His reign is associated with the Meiji Restoration of 1868, which ...

, who assigned the name to Prince Kotohito, 16th son of

Prince Fushimi Kuniie was Japanese royalty. He was the 20th/23rd prince head of the House of Fushimi and the eldest son of Prince Fushimi Sadayuki (1776–1841) and his concubine Seiko, which made him the 11th cousin of Emperor Sakuramachi. Despite being merely a d ...

(one of the other ''shinnoke'' houses). The line became extinct again with the death of his son, Kan'in Sumihito (formerly Kan'in-no-miya Haruhito shinnō) in 1988.

References

* Keane, Donald. ''Emperor Of Japan: Meiji And His World, 1852-1912''. Columbia University Press (2005). * Lebra, Sugiyama Takie. ''Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility''. University of California Press (1995). {{ISBN, 0-520-07602-8 Japanese nobility