Princess Kazu
| Chikako | |
|---|---|
| Princess Kazu | |
 |
|
| Born |
1 August 1846 Kyoto, Japan |
| Died | 2 September 1877 (aged 31) Hakone, Japan |
| Spouse | Tokugawa Iemochi |
| Father | Emperor Ninkō |
| Mother | Tsuneko Hashimoto |
Chikako, Princess Kazu (和宮 親子内親王 Kazu-no-miya Chikako naishinnō?, 1 August 1846 – 2 September 1877) (Kazunomiya) was the wife of 14th shogun Tokugawa Iemochi. She was renamed Lady Seikan'in no miya after she took the tonsure as a widow. She is the great-great aunt of the present emperor, Emperor Akihito.
She was the eighth and youngest daughter of Emperor Ninkō and his concubine, Hashimoto Tsuneko - renamed Kangyouin (観行院) after she took the tonsure. She was the younger 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.
Kazunomiya wrote a poem to her older brother, Emperor Komei before she left Kyoto for Edo
"Without regret If it is for you my lord and for your people"
"I will vanish with the dew on the plain of musashi"
In 1851, Kazunomiya 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.
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