was the eighth head of the house, one of the ''

shinnōke was the collective name for the four cadet branches of the Imperial family of Japan, which were until 1947 entitled to provide a successor to the Chrysanthemum throne if the main line failed to produce an heir. The heads of these royal houses ...

'' branches of the

Imperial Family A royal family is the immediate family of King, kings/Queen regnant, queens, Emir, emirs/emiras, Sultan, sultans/Sultana (title), sultanas, or raja/rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the ...

of Japan, which were eligible to succeed to the

Chrysanthemum Throne The is the throne of the Emperor of Japan. The term also can refer to very specific seating, such as the throne in the Shishin-den at Kyoto Imperial Palace. Various other thrones or seats that are used by the Emperor during official functions ...

in the event that the main line should die out.

Family

*Father: Prince Arisugawa Tsunahito *Mother: Toshima Katsuko *Wife: Nijō Hiroko (二条広子) *Concubine: Yuko Saeko (佐伯祐子) **1st Son:

Prince Arisugawa Taruhito was a Japanese career officer in the Imperial Japanese Army, who became the 9th head of the line of '' shinnōke'' cadet branches of the Imperial Family of Japan on September 9, 1871. Early life Prince Arisugawa Taruhito was born in Kyoto in ...

( 有栖川宮熾仁親王, 17 March 1835 – 15 January 1895) **2nd Daughter: Princess Somemiya (染宮王; 1836 –1843） **2nd Son: Prince Kakumiya ( 洁宮王; 1838 –1843) ** *Concubine: Chiyo Yamanishi (山西千世) **1st Daughter: Itonomiya Takako (1835–1856) adopted by Tokugawa Ieyoshi **3rd Son: Prince Nagamiya (長宮王;1840–1843) *Concubine: Noriko Mori (森則子) **3rd Daughter: Princess Noriko (宜子女王; 1851– 1895） **4th Daughter: Princess Arisugawa Toshiko (貞愛親王妃利子女王; 1858 - 1927) **4th Son:

Prince Arisugawa Takehito was the 10th head of a cadet branch of the Japanese imperial family and a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Early life Prince Takehito was born in Kyoto as a scion of the house, one of the ''shinnōke'' branches of the Imperial ...

(有栖川宮威仁親王, 13 January 1862 – 05 July 1913)

Biography

Prince Takahito was born in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...

as the first son of Prince Arisugawa Tsunahito. In 1822, he was adopted by Emperor Kōkaku (1771–1840) as a potential heir. The following year he was granted the rank of Imperial Prince by imperial proclamation, with the court title Kazusatai no mikoto. He succeeded his father as the 9th head of the Arisugawa-no-miya house on 2 April 1845. On 2 June 1848, Prince Arisugawa Takahito married Nijō Hiroko (1819–1875): the daughter of ''

Sadaijin The ''Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary'', Kenkyusha Limited, was a government position in Japan in the late Nara and Heian periods. The position was consolidated in the Taihō Code of 702. The Asuka Kiyomihara Code of 689 marks the in ...

Nijō Narinobu , son of Nijō Harutaka, was a Japanese ''kugyō'' (court noble) of the Edo period (1603–1868). He married a Tokugawa Juko (1796-1844), daughter of the seventh head of Mito Domain Tokugawa Harutoshi was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the Edo per ...

. He had four sons and four daughters, many of whom were by

concubine Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive. Concubi ...

s. Prince Arisugawa was a trusted confidant of

Emperor Kōmei was the 121st Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession.Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'')孝明天皇 (121)/ref> Kōmei's reign spanned the years from 1846 through 1867, corresponding to the final years of the ...

(1831–1867). During the unsettled period just prior to 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 practical imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Although there were ...

, when ''

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 s ...

'' militants battled troops local to the

Tokugawa Bakufu The Tokugawa shogunate (, Japanese 徳川幕府 ''Tokugawa bakufu''), also known as the , was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Tokugawa-jidai''"in ''Japan Encycloped ...

in the vicinity of the

Kyoto Imperial Palace The is the former palace of the Emperor of Japan. Since the Meiji Restoration in 1869, the Emperors have resided at the Tokyo Imperial Palace, while the preservation of the Kyoto Imperial Palace was ordered in 1877. Today, the grounds are open t ...

in July 1864, (an incident known as the ''Kinmon no Hen''), Prince Arisugawa was punished for suspected collusion with

Chōshū Domain The , also known as the , was a domain (''han'') of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871.Deal, William E. (2005) ''Handbook to Life in Medieval and Early Modern Japan,'' p. 81 The Chōshū Domain was based ...

and sentenced to

house arrest In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if al ...

. After the

, he was restored to the court and promoted to the position of Senior Councilor (''gijō''). He subsequently served as first director of the Department of Shinto Affairs, where he was influential in the development of

State Shinto was Imperial Japan's ideological use of the Japanese folk religion and traditions of Shinto. The state exercised control of shrine finances and training regimes for priests to strongly encourage Shinto practices that emphasized the Emperor a ...

. In 1881, he resigned from his political posts and became head of the newly established Research Institute for Japanese Classical Literature (''Kōten Kōkyūsho''), the forerunner of

Kokugakuin University Kokugakuin University (國學院大學; ''Kokugakuin Daigaku'', abbreviated as 國學大 ''Kokugakudai'' or 國大 ''Kokudai'') is a private university, whose main office is in Tokyo's Shibuya district. The academic programs and research include ...

). The prince was a master of ''waka'' poetry and

Japanese calligraphy also called is a form of calligraphy, or artistic writing, of the Japanese language. Written Japanese was originally based on Chinese characters only, but the advent of the hiragana and katakana Japanese syllabaries resulted in intrin ...

. The official copy of the Meiji

Charter Oath The was promulgated on 6 April 1868 in Kyoto Imperial Palace. The Oath outlined the main aims and the course of action to be followed during Emperor Meiji's reign, setting the legal stage for Japan's modernization. This also set up a process of ...

was in his handwriting, and he supplied many inscriptions for various

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

temples and

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shint ...

shrines. His pen-name was Shōzan. Prince Takahito resigned as head of the Arisugawa-no-miya house in favor of his eldest son,

, on 9 September 1871. He died in Tokyo on 24 January 1886.

References

* Griffis, William Elliott. ''The Mikado's Empire: Volume 2. Book 2. Personal Experiences, Observations, and Studies in Japan, 1870-1874''. Adamant Media Corporation (2000) * Keane, Donald. ''Emperor Of Japan: Meiji And His World, 1852-1912''. Columbia University Press (2005). {{DEFAULTSORT:Arisugawa Takahito, Prince 1813 births 1886 deaths Arisugawa-no-miya Japanese princes Meiji Restoration People of Meiji-period Japan People from Kyoto Japanese Shintoists Grand Cordons of the Order of the Rising Sun