The Asaka (朝香) ''ōke'' (princely house) was the eighth oldest branch of the

Japanese Imperial Family The is the reigning dynasty of Japan, consisting of those members of the extended family of the reigning emperor of Japan who undertake official and public duties. Under the present constitution of Japan, the emperor is "the symbol of the State ...

created from branches of the

Fushimi-no-miya The is the oldest of the four shinnōke, branches of the Imperial Family of Japan which were eligible to succeed to the Chrysanthemum Throne in the order of succession. The Fushimi-no-miya was founded by Prince Yoshihito, the son of the Northe ...

house.

Asaka-no-miya

The Asaka-no-miya house was formed by Prince Yasuhiko Asaka, eighth son of

Prince Kuni Asahiko 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 Ninkō and later a close advisor to Emperor Kōmei and Emperor Meiji. He was the gr ...

. He received the house from the

Meiji Emperor , posthumously honored as , was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 1867 until his death in 1912. His reign is associated with the Meiji Restoration of 1868, which ended the Tokugawa shogun ...

in 1906. Injured in an automobile accident in France in 1923, the prince remained in the country while recuperating, learning much about French culture. The princess came to France to nurse him and learned much about

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

at a 1925 exposition. Upon returning to Japan, the prince took on leadership positions in the

Shanghai Expeditionary Army The was a corps-level ad hoc Japanese army in the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Shanghai Expeditionary Army was first raised on February 25, 1932 as a reinforcement for Japanese forces involved during the First Battle of Shanghai. It was disso ...

and

Imperial Guard An imperial guard or palace guard is a special group of troops (or a member thereof) of an empire, typically closely associated directly with the emperor and/or empress. Usually these troops embody a more elite status than other imperial force ...

, becoming an army general. As the commander of Japanese forces outside

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

in December 1937, Asaka presided over the

mass murder Mass murder is the violent crime of murder, killing a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. A mass murder typically occurs in a single location where one or more ...

of hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians in what came to be known as the

Nanjing Massacre The Nanjing Massacre, or the Rape of Nanjing (formerly Chinese postal romanization, romanized as ''Nanking'') was the mass murder of Chinese civilians, noncombatants, and surrendered prisoners of war by the Imperial Japanese Army in Nanji ...

. During the closing years of the Pacific War he prepared the Army and Navy for a joint mainland endgame. Prince Yasuhiko joined the mass resignation from the imperial household in 1947, and took up golf. He died in 1981; his summer estate is now a hotel.

Asaka Takahiko

Prince Takahiko was the eldest son of Asaka Yasuhiko. He was a lieutenant colonel at the end of the second world war. In 1947, he abandoned his Imperial status and took on the name Asaka Takahiko.

References

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