was a Japanese businessman and

Shinto , also called Shintoism, is a religion originating in Japan. Classified as an East Asian religions, East Asian religion by Religious studies, scholars of religion, it is often regarded by its practitioners as Japan's indigenous religion and as ...

priest. Kyōgoku was the 15th head of the

Kyōgoku clan The were a Japanese ''daimyō'' and samurai clan which rose to prominence during the Sengoku and Edo periods. The clan descend from the Uda Genji through the Sasaki clan.Papinot, Jacques. (2003)''Nobiliare du Japon'', pp. 27–28./ref> The ...

(the former Tajima Toyooka clan) which held power in Toyooka before and during the

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

. He was among descendants of the

Meiji period The was 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 colonizatio ...

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) which was abolished in 1947."New Yasukuni chief priest picked,"
''Japan Times.'' June 13, 2009. Kyōgoku died from a

epidural hematoma Epidural hematoma is when bleeding occurs between the tough outer membrane covering the brain (dura mater) and the skull. When this condition occurs in the spinal canal, it is known as a spinal epidural hematoma. There may be loss of consci ...

on May 6, 2024, at the age of 86.

Career

The major part of his working career was spent as an executive at the

NYK Line The , also known as NYK Line, is a Japanese shipping company. The company headquarters are located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It operates a fleet of over 820 ships, which includes container ships, tankers, bulk and woodchip carriers, roll-on/ro ...

shipping company. Then Kyōgoku headed , which is a small

tugboat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...

and port transport firm based in Yokohama.関東曳船株式会社, Kanto
/ref> Kyōgoku was named the chief priest (''kannushi'') of the

Yasukuni Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. It was founded by Emperor Meiji in June 1869 and commemorates those who died in service of Empire of Japan, Japan, from the Boshin War of 1868–1869, to the two Sino-Japanese Wars, First Sino-Japane ...

in 2009.

References

1938 births 2024 deaths Japanese business executives Japanese Shintoists Kyōgoku clan Deaths from epidural hematoma {{Shinto-stub