Kazuko Takatsukasa

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 26 May 1989(1989-05-26) (aged 59)
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

Honours

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

National honours

Ancestry

Sources


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