Princess Yoshiko (Arisugawa-no-miya)

Yoshiko
Yoshiko
	Princess Yoshiko in later life
Successor	Princess Takako (幟子女王)
	Full name Tokugawa Yoshiko
Native name	吉子女王
	Titles and styles Imperial Princess, the first wife of feudal lord Tokugawa Nariaki of Mito Domain
Born	Arisugawa-no-miya Tomi; October 28, 1804
Died	27 January 1893 (aged 88); Tokyo
Buried	Zuiryuzan temple, Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture
Noble family	Chiefs of the Tokugawa shogunate as:; * Ieyoshi (12th, brother-in-law),; * Yoshinobu (15th).; Feudal lords as:; * Yoshiatsu, Mito Domain; * Tsuchiya Tsugunao, Tsuchiura Domain (stepson); * Akitake, Shimizu-Tokugawa Family (stepson)
Feudal lord	Tokugawa Nariaki
	Issue Yoshiatsu (ja) (her eldest son); Yoshinobu (her third son).
Father	Prince Taruhito of Arisugawa-no-miya; (twelfth and the last daughter)
Mother	Ando Kiyoko

Princess Yoshiko（28 October 1804 – 27 January 1893）was the younger sister of His Imperial Highness Prince Tsunahito of Arisugawa-no-miya. Yoshiko married to Tokugawa Nariaki, the 9th feudal lord of Mito Domain. She was the mother to the 10th lord Yoshiatsu as well as the 15th and the last Chief of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa Yoshinobu.

Personal history

Yoshiko, the twelfth and the last daughter was born to His Imperial Highness Prince Taruhito of Arisugawa-no-miya family with a courtesan Ando Kiyoko. Called Princess Tomi (登美宮, Tomi no miya) when very young, and before coming to Edo from Kyoto. Named Teihoin (貞芳院) by husband for in case if she be widowed, then called Madam Bummei (文明夫人, Bummei fujin) post humously when she died in 1893 at the age of 89 in Tokyo. Tokugawa Yoshiko rests at Zuiryusan temple, the official Bodhi temple of Mito clan in Ibaraki Prefecture.[1]

One of her elder sisters, Princess Takako, was married to the twelfth shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi, and others were married to feudal lords, one the wife of Asano Narikata of Hiroshima Domain and the other of Mori clan of Chōshū Domain.[2][3] In 1830 and at the age of 27, Yoshiko was engaged to Nariaki who was 37 but had not had the first wife as he had become the chief of his clan just a year ago. Princess Takako, Yoshiko's elder sister who married a shogun, was said to have arranged the marriage, and there is a record of Emperor Ninkō's comment that Mito clan had been good in both politics and education since (Nariaki's) predecessors. The Mito clan was renowned to support the imperial system with enthusiasm for generations, and that the emperor gladly approved the marriage of Princess (Yoshiko) to a loyal feudal lord.[4]

When Yoshiko came to Edo and started leading a life of samurai wife, she kept the attire of imperial household for weeks after her marriage, which she wore and posed for a portrait wearing Kosode gown and hakama long skirt. In a letter boxed with that portrait, Nariaki called his wife Yoshiko, not Princess Yoshiko or other names. Among 37 children of Nariaki with four wives, Yoshiko was the mother of their first son Yoshiatsu, the seventh son Yoshinobu after an infant died prematurely, and a daughter as the last child.

Yoshiko was known to be fluent in arts, especially waka Japanese poems as well as Japanese calligraphy as the Arisugawa family heritage. Embroidery and playing music on koto and hichiriki was among her hobbies,[lower-alpha 1] while after relocating to Mito from Edo, leant to fish at the river down the castle.[6]

As being the younger sister-in-law to Ieyoshi the twelfth shogun and being an imperial princess, those higher ranks including Ii Naosuke and his followers in Edo government were said to keep an eye on her if she would advise either the shogun or the emperor on political issues.[lower-alpha 2] While Nariaki was charged to take part in anti-shogun movements at Ansei Purge, and was detained in Mito for lifetime in 1859, it took her three months to obtain permission and move from Edo to Mito. Widowed the next year, Yoshiko followed samurai custom and cut her hair short and made a pabbajja, retiring from social activities and was renamed as Teiho-in (貞芳院).

Later life

Kobuntei villa in Mito city.

Between 1869 and 1873 (2nd and 6th years of Meiji), Yoshiko resided in the Kobuntei Villa in Kairaku-en garden her late husband had opened. Her stepson Akitake invited Yoshiko to live in his mansion at Koume, Tokyo, which was the shimo-yashiki, or the second official residence of the Mito clan in Edo.[9] While the samurai custom prohibited Yoshiko to live with her only surviving natural son, Yoshinobu, they were exchanging letters: Yoshinobu had been adopted to Hitotsubashi family when he was eleven [10] to be entitled as an heir to shogunate, so that he no more was regarded as Yoshiko's "direct family".[6]

It took years for Yoshiko before overcoming the prejudice among Meiji politicians as being an anti-government, as being the mother of Yoshinobu who had opened fire against the government supporters in Kyoto, and on top of that, the Mito clan was known to be radically against opening the country to foreign relations and trades. As the emperor governed the Meiji government, Yoshiko had been distanced from her kins in Kyoto,[lower-alpha 3] before she regained family ties with her grand nephew Prince Taruhito of Arisugawa family (ja) (1835 – 1895). It was after she moved to Tokyo and Prince Taruhito wrote in his diary that since after January 1873, Yoshiko invited the Prince to her residence, sent gifts when she heard Taruhito was ill, and when the engagement of Prince Taruhito was publicised in June 1873.[12]

Yoshiko recovered her social status when late Nariaki was honored with the rank of Sho-ni-i (ja) or the Second Rank of Honor, post-humously in 1873 and commemorated the occasion by giving Prince Taruhito a stationary Naruhito had handcrafted.[13] When Prince Taruhito lost his first wife Sadako to illness in 1872, Yoshiko mourned over the death of her step daughter, and tried to show condolence by arranging an extended family reunion of the children of Nariaki for the deceased, with Prince Taruhito as the guest of honor. The eldest surviving son Ikeda Yoshinori (ja) offered his residence, who was the lord of Tottori domain, inviting Akitake (Sadako's natural brother), Atsuyoshi (Yoshiatsu's son), Matsudaira Tadakazu (Shimabara domain), Tsuchiya Tsugunao (Tsuchiura domain) among others.[14] Princess Ei, wife of Akitake joined them who was Taruhito's pupil of calligraphy.[lower-alpha 4]

Madam Bummei, or her posthumous name was said to be given by her late husband Nariaki even before his death.

Footnotes

Notes

As Yoshiko's marriage to a feudal lord was to join a lower social rank compared to the imperial household, it meant she would never come back to Kyoto, and visited the palace to bid farewell to her relatives and left a waka poem.[5]
While the cherry blossoms will be at the peak in the remote place, / let the sweet smell reach above the clouds to the palace. (天ざかるひなにはあれど櫻花／雲の上まで咲き匂はなん
, Amazakaru hina niwa aredo sakurabana / kumo no ue made saki niowanan)
In July, 1858 (Ansei 5th), the ko-metsuke (junior censor or intelligent survey officer) wrote the following statement to "Tairo" (ja) and Rōjū, the top rank officials.
"Because for the temperament of Lady Behind the Screen (= Tomi-no-miya Yoshiko),[7] she writes often to those she cares on various topics, and that extends naturally to the housemaids or home makers under her supervision, but even to those controversial political topics related to home affairs or the maritime defenses. While the recent policy of the government is quite reasonable, it is said that she was quite upset with that arrangement.[8] As she is a relative to Prince Nikko the Monk, it seems that both share the same sentiment. It is rumored that she wrote a letter to Kyoto (Imperial court)."
This letter would be the evidence that Yoshiko was deeply involved not only in home making of a feudal household, but also had her hands on in politics as well as interested in national defense matters.
In February 1869 her great niece Yoshiko (28 March 1851 – 4 January 1895) by her brother's son Prince Arisugawa Takahito was married with Ii Naonori (22 May 1848 – 9 January 1904). Naonori's father was Ii Naosuke, who ordered Nariaki's detainment in Mito.[11]
Princess Ei was born to aristrocrat Nakanoin Michitoyo (ja) and raised in Kyoto like Yoshiko was. They shared aristocratic culture of Kyoto.

Citations

Akimoto 2008, p. 162.
Nishimura 1944, pp. 128–138.
Hirota 2012, pp. 185–236.
Takamatsu-no-miyake 1938.
Anthology 1939, p. 18.
Shiba 1998, pp. 129–152.
"Lady Behind the Screen (御簾中, Go-renchū)" was a honorific originally attached to those of imperial household during Heian period (794 – 1185). As it had propagated among samurai leaders, the Edo government restricted the use under feudal ranking system, and only the first wives of Shoguns as well as those of the lords of prominent Three Families or Gosanke were called with that. Later, the closest Shogun family household was extended to include Gosankyo, first wives of those lords were also called gorenjū: they were married to the heirs in line of Tokugawa Yoshimune's three sons, who had resided at Shimizu, Tayasu, and Hitotsubashi quarters inside the Edo castle properties.
The "recent policy" an intelligent survey officer mentioned in his letter implied to the Treaty of Amity and Commerce signed with the US the month that letter was sent.
Tokugawa Residents 2011, pp. 71–77.
Kirino, Sakujin (1998). "§5 Taikun to ason no hazama de [Being a Taikun and an Ason]". Kokō no shōgun tokugawa yoshinobu: Mito no ko arisugawanomiya no mago ni umarete [Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the solitary Shogun : Born to Mito domain, a grandson of Arisugawa Prince] (in Japanese). OCLC 675593854.ISBN 4087811573, 9784087811575
Haga, Noboru; Ichibangase, Yasuko; Nakajima, Kuni; Soda, Koichi (1993). Nihon josei jinmei jiten [Japan Women's Who's Who]. Nihon Tosho Center.NCID BN09249637
Prince Taruhito diary 1935, pp. 7, 11, 27, 45, 83, 202.
Prince Taruhito diary 1935, p. 213.
Prince Taruhito diary 1935, pp. 221-222.

References

Taruhito Shinnō nikki [Prince Taruhito Diary]. 2. Prince Taruhito of Takamatu-no-miya. Takamatu-no-miya Household. 1935. pp. 7, 11, 27, 45, 83, 202, 213, 221–222. Retrieved 2019-06-09. Between Keio 4th and Meiji 14th (1868–1881)CS1 maint: others (link) Taruhito Shinnō nikki (熾仁親王日記)
Akimoto, Shigeharu (2008). "Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the 15th shogun : natural mother Yoshiko". Tokugawa shōgun-ke bohi sōran [Headstones of the Tokugawa Shogun family]. Osaka: Parēdo. p. 162. OCLC 675728533.ISBN 9784434114885, 4434114883
Ibaraki Board of Education, ed. (1939). Aishō-shū engi [My Favorite Waka Poems Anthology]. Mito: Ibaraki Board of Education. p. 18. doi:10.11501/1437963. OCLC 673118728. JPNO 44042091. Aishō-shu engi (愛誦集衍義) Japanese binding
Taruhito shinnō gyōjitsu. Tokyo: Takamatsu-no-miya household. 1938. OCLC 682955379.
Takase, Shinkei (1905). "Toyama Kyoshu-ou monogatari narabini Teihoin dai-fujin no gosho". Mito shidan: Koro jitsureki fu kino no yume [Kyoshu Toyama Story and the Calligraphy of Great Madam Teihoin]. Chugai Toshokyoku. OCLC 672446921.
Nishimura, Bunsoku (1944). "Rekkō fujin Teihō-in". Mitogaku zuihitsu [Madam Teihō-in, the Widow of the late Lord Rekkō: Essays of Mito Philosophy]. Tokyo: Shōwa Kankōkai. pp. 128–138. doi:10.11501/1038547. OCLC 39919766. JPNO 46001378.
Shiba, Katsurako (September 1998). "Tokugawa Yoshinobu no haha Teiho-in Yoshiko to oku-jochu Nishimiya Hide" [Thoughts about women in Edo era]. Edo-ki Onna Kou. Katsura bunko (9): 129–152. doi:10.11501/1835480. ISSN 1343-6821. OCLC 5174478406. JPNO 00081734. Shogun mother Teiho-in Yoshiko and lady servant Hide Nishimiya (徳川慶喜の母貞芳院吉子と奥女中西宮秀)
Hirota, Yoshitaka (2012-03-30). "(Kenkyu nōto) Meiji zenki no "Kishin no cha no yu": "Taruhito Shinnō Nikki" oyobi "Higashikuze Michitomi Nikki" ni miru kissa bunka no jōkyō" [Aristocratic Tea ceremony in the Early Meiji Era : Tea Culture in the "Diary of Prince Arisugawa-no-miya Takahito" and the "Diariy of Higashikuze Michitomi"]. Nihon Kenkyu. 45: 185–236. doi:10.15055/00000465. OCLC 998016213. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
Matsudoshi Tojō Rekishikan, ed. (2011). Tokugawa akitake no yashiki Yoshinobu no sumai: Matsudoshi Tojō Rekishikan kikakuten. Akitake Tokugawa, Yoshinobu Tokugawa (contributors). Matsudo: Matsudoshi Tojō History Museum. pp. 71–77. OCLC 796783371. - Special exhibition on the residences of Akitake and Yoshinobu.