Empress Kōjun

From Kaiserreich

Current revision as of 14:54, 22 October 2007

Empress Kōjun (香淳皇后, kōjun kōgō?) (March 6, 1903 - ) is the empress of Japan.

Early life

Princess Nagako was born on 6 March 1903 in Tokyo, the eldest daughter of Prince Kuni Kuniyoshi (1873 - 1929)by his wife, Chikako (1879 - ), the 7th daughter of Prince Shimazu Tadayoshi, former lord of Satsuma, 29th and last daimyo of the line. Prince Kuniyoshi Kuni, a son of Prince Kuni Asahiko, was the head of one eleven cadet branches of the imperial family during the Meiji and Taishō periods.[citation needed] Princess Nagako attended the Girls' Department of Peers' School in Tokyo with her first cousin, Princess Masako Nashimoto, who became Crown Princess Bangja of Korea.

Marriage and Children

The January 1919 engagement of Princess Nagako to her distant cousin then-Crown Prince Hirohito, the future Shōwa Emperor, was unusual in two respects. First, she was a princess of the imperial blood (albeit a minor one), whereas for centuries the chief consorts of Japanese emperors and crown princes had come one of the five senior branches of the Fujiwara clan (Konoe, Ichijō, Nijō, Takatsukasa, and Kujō), the most illustrious families of the court nobility or kuge.[citation needed] Second, although Princess Nagako's father was an offshoot of the imperial family, her mother descended from daimyo, the feudal or military aristocracy Princess Nagako married Crown Prince Hirohito on 26 January 1924 and became Crown Princess of Japan. She became empress upon Hirohito's accession to the throne on 25 December 1925. The imperial couple have seven children, four daughters and two sons:

1. Princess Teru (Shigeko) (照宮成子 teru no miya shigeko), ( 9 December 1925 - )

2. Princess Hisa (Sachiko) (久宮祐子 hisa no miya sachiko), 10 September 1927 - 8 March 1928

3. Princess Taka (Kazuko) (孝宮和子 taka no miya kazuko), ( 30 September 1929 - )

4. Princess Yori (Atsuko) (順宮厚子 yori no miya atsuko), born 7 March 1931;

5. Crown Prince Tsugu (Akihito) (継宮明仁 tsugu no miya akihito) born 23 December 1933

6. Prince Yoshi (Masahito) (義宮正仁 yoshi no miya masahito), born 28 November 1935.