was a member 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 ...

, who served as the chief priest (''saishu'') of the

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

Grand Shrine of Ise The , located in Ise, Mie, Ise, Mie Prefecture of Japan, is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu. Officially known simply as , Ise Jingū is a shrine complex composed of many Shinto shrines centered on two main shrines, and . ...

, from 1909 until his death in 1937.

Early life

Prince Kuni Taka was born in

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 ...

, the fifth 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 ...

, a scion of the sesshu shinōke line of

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 ...

. His mother was Izumitei Shizue, the second daughter of Isumitise Shun'eki, a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

at Kamo Shrine, Kyoto. He was a half-brother of

Prince Kaya Kuninori (1 September 1867 – 8 December 1909) was a member of the Japanese imperial family and the founder of one of the nine ''ōke'' (or princely houses) in the Meiji period. Early life The prince was born in Kyoto, as the second of the nine son ...

Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi was a member of the Japanese imperial family and a field marshal in the Imperial Japanese Army during the Meiji and Taishō periods. He was the father of Empress Kōjun (who in turn was the consort of the Emperor Shōwa), and therefore, the mat ...

(the father of

Empress Kōjun , born , was a member of the Imperial House of Japan, the wife of Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) and the mother of Shigeko Higashikuni, Princess Sachiko Hisa-nomiya, Kazuko Takatsukasa, Atsuko Ikeda, the Emperor Emeritus Akihito, Prince Masahito ...

Prince Nashimoto Morimasa was a member of the Japanese Imperial Family and a ''Field Marshal (Japan), field marshal'' in the Imperial Japanese Army. An uncle-in-law of Emperor Shōwa, an uncle of his consort, Empress Kōjun, and the father-in-law of Crown Prince Euimin ...

Prince Asaka Yasuhiko General was the founder of a collateral branch of the Japanese imperial family and a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during the Japanese invasion of China and the Second World War. Son-in-law of Emperor Meiji and uncle by marriage of Em ...

, and

Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko General was a Japanese imperial prince, a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Army and the 30th Prime Minister of Japan from 17 August 1945 to 9 October 1945, a period of 54 days. An uncle-in-law of Emperor Hirohito twice over, Prince Hi ...

. Prince Taka came of age at a time when the Meiji oligarchs deemed to politically expedient to sever the historical links between

Buddhism 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 gra ...

and the imperial house; use the

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

and imperial family as symbols of national unity by having them serve in the military; and increase the size of the imperial family by allowing new princely houses to branch out from the

. Prince Taka's career path was somewhat unusual for the late

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

in several respects. First, unlike his half-brothers and other princes of that generation, he never held a commission in the military. Second,

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 ...

did not direct him to form a new princely family or to descend to peerage status with a ''

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 ' ...

'' title. Instead, he remained within the imperial family, although his half-brother, Prince Kuni Kunyoshi, succeeded to the ''Kuni-no-miya'' title in 1891. Third, while his father and half-brothers moved to the new capital,

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 1892, Prince Taka continued to reside in Kyoto, except for a brief period in 1895, when he served a term in the House of Peers.

Marriage & Family

On 9 March 1907, Prince Taka of Kuni married Minase Shizuko ( 1 September 1884 – 27 September 1959), the eldest daughter of

Viscount A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial ...

Minase Tadasuki. The prince and princess had five children: two daughters who married into ''kazoku'' houses, one son who died in childhood, and two other sons who left the imperial family and received peerages upon adulthood: # . # . # ; m. 2 April 1939 to Prince Nijō Tanemoto ( 10 June 1910 – 28 August 1985) and had issue. # ; renounced imperial title and created Count Uji, 5 October 1942; m. Kazuko ( 26 June 1926 - ), third daughter of Duke

Nobusuke Takatsukasa Duke , son of Hiromichi, was a Japanese nobleman and politician of the Meiji period (1868–1912) who served as a member of House of Peers in the Diet of Japan. Takatsukasa Nobuhiro was his brother, and Toshimichi was his son. A keen ornitholo ...

, and had issue. # , renounced imperial title and created Count Tatsuda, 7 June 1943; adopted by Nashimoto Itsuko, the widow of former

, 28 April 1966, and changed surname to Nashimoto; current head of the former Nashimoto-no-miya house; m. at Tokyo 1945 (div. 1979) Princess Kuni Masako ( 8 December 1926 - ), eldest daughter of

Prince Kuni Asaakira , was third head of the Kuni-no-miya, a collateral branch of the Japanese imperial family and vice admiral in the Japanese Imperial Navy during World War II. He was the elder brother of Empress Kojun (Nagako), the consort of Emperor Shōwa ...

; and has issue: Norihisa, Toyoko and Kayoko. Prince Taka became acting grand custodian and chief priest of the Shrines of Ise in September 1909, due to the illness of his half brother, Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi. He assumed the post on a permanent basis following Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi's death.

References and further reading

# Keene, Donald. ''Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002) # Lebra, Takie Sugiyama. ''Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kuni Taka, Prince 1875 births 1937 deaths Kuni-no-miya Japanese princes People from Kyoto People of Meiji-period Japan Kannushi