- Prince Yamashina Akira
nihongo|Prince Yamashina Akira|山階宮 晃親王|Yamashina-no-miya Akira shinnō (
22 October 1816 -29 October 1891 ), was the founder of a collateral line of the Japanese imperial family.Early life
Prince Akira was born in
Kyoto , the eldest son ofPrince Fushimi Kuniye (24 October 1802 -5 August 1875 ), the twentieth head of theFushimi-no-miya , the oldest of the four branches of the imperial dynasty allowed to provide a successor to theChrysanthemum throne should the main imperial house fail to produce an heir.He was thus a half-brother of
Prince Kuni Asahiko ,Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa ,Prince Fushimi Sadanaru , andPrince Kan'in Kotohito .Buddhist priest
From an early age, Prince Akira was groomed to pursue a career as a
Buddhist priest, the traditional career path for non-heir sons in the "sesshu shinnoke" during theEdo period . In 1818,Emperor Kōkaku (1779-1817;, died in 1840) adopted Prince Akira as a potential heir.He entered the priesthood under the title Saihan Hoshinnō and later became prince-abbot of Kaju-ji in
Yamashina , outside of Kyoto. In 1842, he angered theTokugawa bakufu , which stripped him of his post and confined him to the temple ofTo-ji . In 1864, the "bakufu" reinstated him.Emperor Kōmei (1840-1867), returned him to secular status, adopted him and granted him the title Yamashina-no-miya in 1858.Marriage and family
Prince Yamashina married Princess Sumiko (1838-1881), a daughter of Emperor Ninko and the half-sister of Emperor Kōmei. Sumiko succeeded to the head of the
Katsura-no-miya house in her own right upon the death of the tenth head. The couple had no children, but the Prince had a son by Nakajo Chieko, a concubine.#
Prince Yamashina Kikumaro (3 July 1873 –2 May 1902 )References and further reading
# Keene, Donald. "Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912" (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002) ISBN 0-231-12340-X
# Lebra, Takie Sugiyama. "Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility" (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993) ISBN 0-520-07602-8
# Papinot Edmond. "Historical and geographical dictionary of Japan" (New York: F. Ungar Pub. Co., 1948)
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