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. The ...

was a Japanese Imperial court noble and statesman at the time of the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

. He held many high-ranking offices in the

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji ...

Early life

Born in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

, Sanjō was the son of ''Naidaijin'' Sanjō Sanetsumu. He held several important posts in Court and became a central figure in the anti-Western, anti-Tokugawa ''

sonnō jōi was a '' yojijukugo'' (four-character compound) phrase used as the rallying cry and slogan of a political movement in Japan in the 1850s and 1860s, during the Bakumatsu period. Based on Neo-Confucianism and Japanese nativism, the movement sou ...

'' ("Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarian") movement. When the coup d'état of September 30, 1863, brought the more moderate Aizu and Satsuma factions into power, he fled to Chōshū. He returned to Kyoto after the resignation of ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military rulers 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, except during parts of the Kamak ...

Tokugawa Yoshinobu Kazoku, Prince was the 15th and last ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful. He resigned his position as shogun in late 1867, while ai ...

in 1867.

Political career

The first administrative offices (''Sanshoku'') of the

were established on January 3, 1868: the ''Sōsai'' (President), ''Gijō'' (Administration) and ''San'yo'' (Office of Councilors). These offices were abolished on June 11, 1868, with the establishment of the '' Dajō-kan'' (Grand Council of State). In the new Meiji government, Sanjō was head of the ''Gijo'', Minister of the Right (右大臣) (June 11, 1868 – August 15, 1871), and Chancellor of the Realm ('' Dajō-daijin'') (August 15, 1871 – December 22, 1885). Sanjō was awarded Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum in 1882. On July 7, 1884, his title was changed to that of ''koshaku'' (

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. The ...

) under the ''

kazoku The was the hereditary peerage of the Empire of Japan, which existed between 1869 and 1947. It was formed by merging the feudal lords (''Daimyo, daimyō'') and court nobles (''kuge'') into one system modelled after the British peerage. Distin ...

'' peerage system. Sanjō served until the abolition of the ''dajōkan'' system in 1885. After the Cabinet system was established, he became Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan. In 1889, when

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Kuroda Kiyotaka and his cabinet resigned en masse,

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 ...

only accepted Kuroda's resignation and formally invited Sanjō to head the government. The Emperor refused to appoint a new prime minister for the next two months, making Sanjō the only

Prime Minister of Japan The is the head of government of Japan. The prime minister chairs the Cabinet of Japan and has the ability to select and dismiss its ministers of state. The prime minister also serves as the commander-in-chief of the Japan Self-Defense Force ...

(albeit interim) who also concurrently held the post of Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal.After the

Meiji Constitution The Constitution of the Empire of Japan ( Kyūjitai: ; Shinjitai: , ), known informally as the Meiji Constitution (, ''Meiji Kenpō''), was the constitution of the Empire of Japan which was proclaimed on February 11, 1889, and remained in ...

was adopted in 1890, a new system was established: "In case of death, incapacitation, resignation or removal of the prime minister, a member of the cabinet shall serve as acting prime minister until the next prime minister is formally appointed." Today Sanjō’s government is generally regarded as continuation of Kuroda’s. In 1890, he assumed a seat in the new House of Peers in the

Diet of Japan , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

established by the

. On his death in 1891, he was accorded a

state funeral A state funeral is a public funeral ceremony, observing the strict rules of protocol, held to honour people of national significance. State funerals usually include much pomp and ceremony as well as religious overtones and distinctive elements o ...

. His grave is at the temple of Gokoku-ji in

Bunkyō is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in the Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. Situated in the middle of the ward area, Bunkyō is a residential and educational center. Beginning in the Meiji period, literati like Natsume Sōseki, as well as ...

, Tokyo.

Honours

''From the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia'' *Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (29 December 1876) *Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum (11 April 1882) *Prince (7 July 1884)

Order of precedence

* Junior fifth rank (31 January 1850) *Fifth rank (4 July 1854) * Fourth rank (22 May 1855) *Senior fourth rank (29 January 1856) * Third rank (6 November 1862; degraded 1863, restored 2 January 1868) *First rank (12 June 1868) * Senior first rank (18 February 1891)

Ancestry

Notes

References

* Beasley, William G. (1972). ''The Meiji Restoration''. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
OCLC 579232
* Jansen, Marius B. and Gilbert Rozman, eds. (1986). ''Japan in Transition: from Tokugawa to Meiji''. Princeton:

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

.
OCLC 12311985
* Keene, Donald. (2002). ''Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852–1912''. New York:

Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's la ...

.
OCLC 46731178
* Ozaki, Yukio. (2001). ''The Autobiography of Ozaki Yukio: The Struggle for Constitutional Government in Japan''. ranslated by Fujiko Hara Princeton: Princeton University Press.
OCLC 45363447

External links

Meiji Dignitaries
is a portrait of Sanetomi and others from 1877 * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanjo, Sanetomi 1837 births 1891 deaths 19th-century prime ministers of Japan Kazoku Kuge Meiji Restoration Members of the House of Peers (Japan) Politicians from Kyoto Prefecture People of the Meiji era Sanjō family Deified Japanese men