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Empress Eisho

Empress Dowager Eishō
英照皇太后
Asako Kujo.jpg
Empress consort of Japan
Tenure 10 March 1846 –
30 January 1867
Enthronement 10 March 1846
Born (1835-01-11)11 January 1835
Heian-kyō, Japan
Died 11 January 1897(1897-01-11) (aged 62)
Tokyo City, Japan
Burial Sennyū-ji, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Japan
Spouse Emperor Kōmei
Issue 2; including Princess Junko
Full name
Asako (夙子?)
House Imperial House of Japan
Father Kujō Hisatada
Mother Sugayama
Religion Shinto
Full name
Asako (夙子?)

Empress Dowager Eishō (英照皇太后 Eishō-kōtaigō?, 11 January 1835 – 11 January 1897) was the empress consort of Emperor Kōmei of Japan. She is also known under the technically incorrect name Empress Eishō (英照皇后 Eishō-kōgō?).

As the daughter of Kujō Hisatada, who was a former kampaku, Kujō Asako could anticipate a life unfolding entirely within the ambit of the Imperial court; but she could not have anticipated the vast array of changes which the years would bring during her lifetime. At age 13, she was matched with Crown Prince Okihito. When Emperor Ninkō died in 1846, the newly elevated Emperor Kōmei named her Nyōgo, a consort position of high honor to which princesses of the blood were appointed after the time of Emperor Kammu.

Asako had two daughters, whom both died in infancy; but she became the official mother of Komei's heir, Crown Prince Mutsuhito. He developed a strong emotional attachment to her, which became especially important in the unsettled period after Emperor Kōmei died unexpectedly.

Soon after the death of Emperor Kōmei, Emperor Meiji conferred the title of Empress Dowager; and she was given a posthumous name to go with her new title. This was a highly unusual gesture; and she was afterward known as Empress Dowager Eishō (英照皇太后 Eishō kōtaigō?). This specific posthumous name was taken from the title of a poem, "Purple Wisteria over a Deep Pool," by a T'ang dynasty poet; and it was deemed appropriate for a daughter of the Kūjo family as part of the Fujiwara ("Wisteria Field") clan. When the Meiji period Imperial court relocated from Kyoto to Tokyo, she followed, living first in the Akasaka Palace and then in the Aoyama Palace.


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