Prince Kitashirakawa Naruhisa
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His Imperial Highness Prince Kitashirakawa Naruhisa (北白川宮成久王 Kitashirakawa-no-miya Naruhisa-ō?, 1 April 1887 - 1 April 1923) of Japan, was the 3rd head of a collateral branch of the Japanese imperial family.
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[edit] Early life
Prince Kitashirakawa Naruhisa was the son of Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa and Princess Tomiko. Prince Naruhisa succeeded as head of the house of Kitashirakawa-no-miya after the death of his father in November 1895 during the First Sino-Japanese War. He was the brother of Prince Takeda Tsunehisa and classmate of Prince Asaka Yasuhiko, Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko and Prince Konoe Fumimaro (peer). Prince Naruhisa graduated from Imperial Japanese Army Academy with a commission as a sub-lieutenant in 1904.
[edit] Marriage & family
On 29 April 1909, Prince Kitashirakawa married Princess Kane-no-Miya Fusako (1898-1974), the seventh daughter of Emperor Meiji. Prince and Princess Kitashirakawa Naruhisa had one son and three daughters:
- HIH Prince Kitashirakawa Nagahisa (19 February 1910 – 14 September 1940)
- HIH Princess Kitashirakawa Mineko (b.1910)
- HIH Princess Kitashirakawa Sawako (b.1913)
- HIH Princess Kitashirakawa Tayeko (b.15 April 1920) she married Tokugawa Yoshihisa.
[edit] Later life
Between 1920 and 1923, Prince Naruhisa studied military tactics at the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr in France, along with his cousins Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko and Prince Asaka Yasuhiko. However, on 1 April 1923, he was killed in automobile accident in a Paris suburb that seriously injured killed Princess Kitashirakawa (who had accompanied her husband to Paris), and which left Prince Asaka with a limp for the rest of his life.
Dowager Princess Kitashirakawa Fusako became a commoner on [[14 October] 1947. The former princess served as custodian and chief priestess of the Ise Shrine until her death on 11 August 1974.
[edit] Gallery
 HIH Princess Kitashirakawa Fusako |
 HIH Prince Kitashirakawa Nagahisa |
 HIH Princesses Kitashirakawa Mineko and Sawako |
 HIH Princess Kitashirakawa Mineko |
 HIH Princess Kitashirakawa Sawako |
[edit] References
- Fujitani,T. Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan. University of California Press; Reprint edition (1998). ISBN: 0520213718
- Lebra, Sugiyama Takie. Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility. University of California Press (1995). ISBN: 0520076028
