Chikako, Princess Kazu

Her birth name was Chikako. She was the eighth and youngest daughter of Emperor Ninkō, and was renamed Kangyō'in (観行院) by his concubine, Hashimoto Tsuneko, after she took the tonsure. She was the younger half-sister of Emperor Kōmei. A few months before her birth, her father, Emperor Ninkō, died unexpectedly. Born on 1 August 1846, her official birth date was changed to 10 May because the actual birth date was a bad omen date, and a double bad omen with the death of her father a few months before. She was known as an excellent calligrapher and she was also highly regarded as a waka poet.

• Father: Emperor Ninkō • Mother: Hashimoto Tsuneko (1825–1865) • Husband: Tokugawa Iemochi • Adopted son: Tokugawa Iesato

In 1851, Chikako was engaged to Prince Arisugawa Taruhito (有栖川宮熾仁親王). However, this engagement was subsequently broken when the Imperial court needed someone for a political marriage with the Tokugawa shogunate. Such a marriage had been arranged by the rōjū Andō Nobumasa and Kuze Hirochika in order to foster reconciliation between the Imperial court and the shogunate, but the original candidate for the marriage died in 1861. Subsequently, the Shogunate petitioned the court for a royal marriage between Princess Kazu and Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi. Initially, Princess Kazu refused, and her brother Emperor Kōmei declined the shogunate request stating that Kazu was already engaged and did not want to leave Kyoto, and that, like any woman in Japan, his own sister could not be compelled to marry anyone she did not wish to marry, even by Imperial order. However, the proposal was taken up enthusiastically by a number of people, including Princess Kazu's mother and uncle as well as several prominent kuge at the Imperial court, who persuaded both the Emperor and Princess Kazu to acquiesce to the request. Eventually Emperor Kōmei was persuaded to accept the proposal if, in return, the shogunate would repudiate the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with the United States, and return to the previous isolationist policy. It was then resolved that if Princess Kazu continued to refuse to accept the marriage, Emperor Kōmei would abdicate, another member of the Imperial family would be chosen instead, and that Princess Kazu would have to become a nun. Under pressure from her family, unwilling to be responsible for Emperor Kōmei's abdication and threatened with the monastery, Princess Kazu finally agreed, but gave several conditions including demands that her lifestyle in Edo would remain the same as in Kyoto and that she would be able to return to Kyoto on the anniversaries of her father's death. Emperor Kōmei would also add the conditions that the Shogunate must deliver on its promises on foreign affairs, work out a strategy to improve the livelihood of artisans unable to compete with cheap foreign imports, and that Princess Kazu's conditions must be met. Emperor Kōmei would then make his sister a naishinnō (imperial princess of a shinnōke). In 1862, Chikako, her mother Kangyō-in, and her chief attendant Niwata Tsuguko moved to Edo Castle with a number of attendants. Due to concerns over attacks by those against the Tokugawa shogunate's policies, security forces from dozens of hans were mobilised to protect the procession. In addition, rumours that the support in the court for Princess Kazu's unprecedented marriage was the result of Tokugawa bribery and scheme to hold an Imperial Princess hostage led Emperor Kōmei to send Iwakura Tomomi to safeguard the court's interests. Iwakura would force the shōgun to put a vow of loyalty to paper before returning to Kyoto. The marriage ceremony was held on 11 February 1862. This ceremony differed from that of all previous Tokugawa shōguns: having been made a naishinnō by her brother before leaving Kyoto, Kazu now outranked her husband as well as her mother-in-law, Tenshō-in. Furthermore, Princess Kazu retained the customs of the Imperial palace, which caused considerable friction with Lady Tenshō-in. However, she apparently enjoyed such a good relationship with her husband that they are usually called the closest couple out of all the Tokugawa shōguns, and Iemochi only once took a concubine, which the princess gave him permission to do. Eventually Tenshō-in would reconcile with Princess Kazu, and the bakufu submitted to her order to address her as "Kazu-no-Miya-sama", as opposed to the traditional "Midai-sama".

The exhumation of Princess Kazunomiya's remains, together with the story of the mysterious fading photograph that was found with her, was referenced in Yasunari Kawabata's 1961 novel Beauty and Sadness. Princess Kazunomiya was portrayed by Yumi Adachi in the 2003 Fuji TV miniseries Ōoku. She appeared in the manga Jin and its TV series, where she was one of the patients saved by Jin Minakata and his medical knowledge.

• Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.; OCLC 48943301 • Satow, Ernest Mason and Baba Bunyei. (1905). Japan 1853–1864, or, Genji Yume Monogatari, Tokyo: Naigai shuppan kyokai. • The Royal Diaries Kazunomiya, Prisoner of Heaven, Japan, 1858 by Kathryn Lasky