Empress Teimei

Infobox Monarch|royal|consort
name =Empress Teimei
(Sadako Kujō)
title =Empress of Japan


caption =
consortreign =July 30, 1912 - December 25, 1926
spouse =Emperor Taishō
issue =Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito), Prince Chichibu (Yasuhito), Prince Takamatsu (Nobuhito), Prince Mikasa (Takahito)
royal house =
othertitles ="HIM" Empress Teimei (1951- posthumous name)
"HIM" The Empress Dowager of Japan (1926-1951)
"HIM" The Empress of Japan (1912-1926)
"HIH" The Crown Princess of Japan (1900-1912)
"HIH" Princess Sadako of Kujō
father =Michitaka Kujo
mother =Noma Ikuko
date of birth =birth date|1884|6|25|mf=y
place of birth =Tokyo, Japan
date of death =death date and age|1951|5|17|1884|6|25|mf=y
place of death =Tokyo, Japan|

nihongo|Empress Teimei|貞明皇后|Teimei Kōgō (25 June 1884 – 17 May 1951) was empress consort of Japan. Born nihongo|Sadako Kujō|九条節子|Kujō Sadako, she was the consort of Emperor Taishō and the mother of Emperor Shōwa. Her posthumous name, "Teimei", means "enlightened constancy".

Princess Sadako Kujō was born in Tokyo, as the daughter of Prince Michitaka Kujō, head of Kujō branch of the Fujiwara clan, and Noma Ikuko. She married then-Crown Prince Yoshihito on 25 May 1900, the future Emperor Taishō. When she gave birth to a son, prince Hirohito, the future Emperor Shōwa in 1901, she was the first official wife of a Crown Prince or Emperor to do so since 1750.

She became Empress (Kōgō) when her husband ascended to the throne on 30 July 1912. Given her husband's weak physical and mental condition, she exerted a strong influence on imperial life, and was an active patron of Japan's Red Cross Society.

After the death of Emperor Taishō on 25 December 1926, she was known as the Dowager Empress (which means "widow of the former emperor"). She openly objected to Japan's involvement in World War II, which caused conflict with her son. From 1943, she also worked behind the scene with her son Nobuhito Takamatsu to bring the downfall of Hideki Tojo.

She died at Omiya Palace in Tokyo, aged 66, and was buried next to her husband, Emperor Taishō, in the "Tama no higashi no misasagi" (多摩東陵) at Musashino Imperial Mausoleum in Tokyo.

Gallery

ee also

*Japanese empresses

References

* Bix, Herbert B. "Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan". Harper Perennial (2001). ISBN 0-06-093130-2
* Fujitani,T. "Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan". University of California Press; Reprint edition (1998). ISBN 0-520-21371-8
* Hoyt, Edwin P. Hirohito: "The Emperor and the Man". Praeger Publishers (1992). ISBN 0-275-94069-1