Prince Kuni Asahiko

nihongo|Prince Kuni Asahiko|久邇宮 朝彦親王|Kuni-no-miya Asahiko shinnō (27 February 1824 - 29 October 1891), 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 Ninko and later a close advisor to Emperor Kōmei and Emperor Meiji. He was great grandfather of the present Emperor of Japan, Akihito.

Early life

Prince Asahiko was born in Kyoto, the fourth son of Prince Fushimi Kuniye (24 October 1802 - 5 August 1875), the twentieth head of the Fushimi-no-miya, the oldest of the four branches of the imperial dynasty allowed to provide a successor to the Chrysanthemum throne should the main imperial house fail to produce an heir.

The future Prince Asahiko had several childhood appellations and acquired several more titles and names over the years. He was often known as "Prince Asahiko" ("Asahiko Shinnō") and "Prince Nakagawa" ("Nakagawa-no-miya").

He was a half-brother of Prince Yamashina Akira, Prince Higashifushimi Yorihito, Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa, Prince Fushimi Sadanaru, and Prince Kan'in Kotohito.

Buddhist priest

From an early age, Prince Asahiko was groomed to pursue a career as a Buddhist priest, the traditional career path for non-heir sons in the sesshu shinnoke during the Edo period. He was sent as an acolyte to the Honnō-ji in 1831, but was transferred to Ichijō-in, an abbacy of the Kōfuku-ji in Nara in 1836. In 1838, he was adopted by the Emperor Ninko. That same year, he succeeded an uncle as the abbot of Kōfuku-ji and formally entered the priesthood under the title "Sonya Hoshinnō". In 1852, Emperor Kōmei transferred him to the Shōren-in, a major temple of the Tendai sect in Kyoto and he assumed the title "Shōren no miya Son'yu." He was also known as "Awata no miya" or "Awataguchi no miya" after the location of that temple. During this period, the prince became an outspoken advocate of jōi, the expulsion of all foreigners from Japan. His popularity among the "Ishin Shishi" (the pro-imperial court nationalist patriots) attracted the attention of Ii Naosuke, daimyo of Hikone and the Tairō during the final illness of the Shogun, Tokugawa Iesada. When Ii launched the so-called Ansei Purge, the prince was condemned to perpetual confinement at the Shōkoku-ji. He spent more than two years living in a tiny, dilapidated hut. The treatment of the prince enraged the "shishi", who made his release one of their principal objectives.

Meiji Restoration and afterwards

In 1862, the prince was allowed to return to secular status and received the title "Nakagawa no miya." This was part of the amnesty declared in honor of the marriage of the shogun, Tokugawa Iemochi, to Kazu-no-miya, the Emperor Kōmei's half-sister. He returned to Kyoto, became a close advisor of the emperor, and became known by yet another title, "Kaya-no-miya" at this time. In September 1863, Kōmei bestowed on him the name "Asahiko" and the status of a prince of the blood (or shinnō), and named him "danjō no in", a high ranking court position open only to princes of the blood. Prince Asahiko continued in this post following the death of Kōmei and the ascension of the Meiji emperor.

After the Meiji Restoration, Prince Asahiko's enemies did not relent. In 1868, he deprived of his status as a prince of the blood and exiled to Hiroshima on trumped-up charges of plotting to overthrow the new government. Emperor Meiji pardoned him in February 1872, restoring his princely status and allowing him to start a new collateral branch of the imperial dynasty, the "Kuni-no-miya". He spent the last two decades of his life as the lord custodian priest ("saishu") of the Grand Shrine of Ise. Prince Kuni Asahiko died in Tokyo in 1891.

Progenitor of new imperial families

Prince Kuni Asahiko was the father of at least eighteen children (nine sons and nine daughters) by at least five different court ladies: (1) Shizue (25 May 1846 - 14 December 1914), second daughter of Isumitise Shun'eki, a priest in the Kamo Shrine, Kyoto, (2) Izumi Makiko, (3) Harada Mitsue, (4) Tarao Utako, and (5) Tsunoda Sugako.

Emperor Meiji directed Prince Asahiko's second, eighth, and ninth born sons to found new collateral branches of the imperial family with the hereditary rank of a minor prince of the blood (ō): Kaya-no-miya, Asaka-no-miya, and Higashikuni-no-miya. Prince Asakiko's seventh son succeeded to the head of the existing Nashimoto-no-miya house. His fourth born son succeeded him as the second head of the Kuni-no-miya.

The most important of Prince Asahiko's nine sons were:
#(by Izumitei Shizue) Prince Kaya Kuninori (Kaya no miya Kuninori shinnō) (1 September 1867 - 8 December 1909), second son, excluded from the succession to the house of Kuni-no-miya on the grounds of ill health, 7 March 1887; created Kaya-no-miya (ad personam) and granted the rank of "shinnō", 17 December 1892; authorized to form the princely house of Kaya no miya, 4 May 1900.
# (by Izumitei Shizue) Prince Kuni Taka (Kuni-no-miya Taka-ō) (17 August 1875 - 1 October 1937), third son.
# (by Isume Makiko) Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi (Kuni-no-miya Kuniyoshi-ō), (23 July 1873 - 29 January 1929), fourth son, succeeded his father as 2nd Kuni-no-miya, 29 October 1891.
# (by Harada Mitsue) Prince Nashimoto Morimasa (Nashimoto-no-miya Morimasa ō) (9 March 1874 - 2 January 1951), seventh son; directed by the Emperor Meiji to succeed as 3rd Nashimoto no miya upon the resignation of his cousin Prince Kikumaro (Kikumaro ō), 2 December 1885.
# (by Tsunoda Sugako) Prince Asaka Yasuhiko (Asaka no miya Yasuhiko ō) (2 October 1887 - 13 April 1981), eighth son, created 1st Asaka no miya, 30 March 1906). Married 8th daughter of Emperor Meiji.
# (by Terao Utako) Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko (Higashikuni no miya Naruhiko ō) (3 December 1887 - 20 January 1990), ninth son; created 1st Higashikuni no miya, 3 November 1906. Married 9th daughter of Emperor Meiji.

Trivia

Three of Prince Asahiko's sons, Prince Kaya Kuninori, Prince Kuni Taka, and Prince Nashimoto Morimasa, successively served as lord custodian priests of the Ise Shrine between 1891 and 1947. Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi was the father of Princess Nagako of Kuni, who married the future Emperor Shōwa and became the mother of the present Japanese emperor.

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 978-0520076020
# Papinot Edmond. "Historical and geographical dictionary of Japan" (New York: F. Ungar Pub. Co., 1948)