Kazuko Takatsukasa

Princess Kazuko 孝宮和子内親王
Princess Taka
Takatsukasa Wedding, 1950
Born	(1929-09-30)30 September 1929 Tokyo Imperial Palace, Tokyo, Japan
Died	Tōgū Palace, Tokyo, Japan
Burial	Toshimagaoka Imperial Cemetery, Bunkyo, Tokyo
Spouse	Toshimichi Takatsukasa (m. 1950; d. 1966)
Issue	Naotake Takatsukasa (adopted)
Full name Kazuko (和子)
House	Imperial House of Japan
Father	Emperor Shōwa
Mother	Empress Kōjun
Religion	Shinto

Kazuko Takatsukasa (鷹司和子, Takatsukasa Kazuko, 30 September 1929 – 26 May 1989), formerly Kazuko, Princess Taka (孝宮和子内親王, Taka-no-miya Kazuko Naishinnō), was the wife of Toshimichi Takatsukasa and third daughter of Emperor Shōwa and Empress Kōjun. As such, she was an elder sister to the present Emperor of Japan, Emperor Akihito.

Biography

Princess Taka was born at the Tokyo Imperial Palace. Her childhood appellation was Taka-no-miya (孝宮). As was the practice of the time, she was not raised by her biological parents, but by a succession of court ladies at a separate palace built for her and her younger sisters in the Marunouchi district of Tokyo. She graduated from the Gakushuin Peer’s School in March 1948, and spent a year in the household of former Chamberlain of Japan Saburo Hyakutake learning skills to be a bride. On 21 May 1950, she married Toshimichi Takatsukasa, the eldest son of ex-Duke and guji of Meiji Shrine, Nobusuke Takatsukasa. The marriage received much publicity as it was the first marriage of a member of the imperial family to a commoner.

However, on 28 January 1966, Toshimichi Takatsukasa was found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning at the apartment of his mistress, Michiko Maeda, a Ginza nightclub hostess, giving rise to widely speculative rumors in the Japanese press about his alleged double suicide.

Her misfortunes were not over, as on 22 August 1966, a knife-wielding intruder broke into her home in the middle of the night, and assaulted her, causing injuries to her right and left hands resulting in hospitalization for one week. A shocked Emperor Shōwa ordered that she relocate to within the Tōgū Palace in Akasaka, Tokyo, where she lived until her death of heart failure at the age of 59.

From 1974 to 1988 she served as chief priestess (saishu) of Ise Shrine.

The Takatsukasas had no children, but adopted Naotake Matsudaira (born 1945) of the former Ogyu Matsudaira clan, as their heir. Formerly President of NEC Telecommunications Systems, he is currently chief priest of Ise Shrines.

Titles and styles

Styles of Kazuko, Princess Taka (before her marriage)
Reference style	Her Imperial Highness
Spoken style	Your Imperial Highness
Alternative style	Ma'am

• 30 September 1929 – 21 May 1950: Her Imperial Highness The Princess Taka
• 21 May 1950 – 26 May 1989: Mrs. Toshimichi Takatsukasa

Honours

See also List of honours of the Japanese Imperial Family by country

National honours

• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Precious Crown

Ancestry

Family of Kazuko Takatsukasa

16. Osahito, Emperor Kōmei               8. Mutsuhito, Emperor Meiji                       17. Lady Yoshiko Nakayama               4. Yoshihito, Emperor Taishō                             18. Count Takamitsu Yanagihara               9. Lady Naruko Yanagihara                       19. Lady Utano Hasegawa               2. Hirohito, Emperor Shōwa                                   20. Prince Kujō Hisatada, Regent of Japan               10. Prince Kujō Michitaka of the Fujiwara Clan                       21. Lady Tsuneko Karahashi               5. Lady Sadako Kujō                             22. Yorioki Noma               11. Lady Ikuko Noma                       23. Lady Kairi Yamokushi               1. Kazuko, Princess Taka                                         24. Prince Fushimi Kuniie               12. Asahiko, 1st Imperial Prince Kuni                       25. Lady Nobuko Toriikōji               6. Kuniyoshi, 2nd Imperial Prince Kuni                             26. Sir Toshimasu Izumitei               13. Lady Makiko Izumi                       27. Lady Mako Yatoshi               3. Princess Nagako of Kuni                                   28. Prince Shimazu Hisamitsu               14. Prince Shimazu Tadayoshi                       29. Lady Chimoko Shimazu of Echizen-Shimazu               7. Princess Chikako Shimazu                             30. ?               15. Lady Sumako Yamazaki                       31. ?

Gallery

• 

  Emperor Shōwa's daughters

• 

  Emperor Shōwa's family in 1945

Sources

• Takie Sugiyama Lebra, Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992).

External links

• Deceased and former members of the Imperial family at the Wayback Machine (archived October 27, 2009)
• Time Magazine Feb 6 1950 on wedding
• New York Times obituary