Chikako, Princess Kazu – The first imperial princess to marry into the shogunate

Chikako, Princess Kazu was born on 1 August 1846 as the posthumous child of Emperor Ninkō of Japan and a concubine named Hashimoto Tsuneko.

Chikako had one full brother, who died in infancy before she was born. Through her father’s various concubines and wives, she had 14 half-siblings, but only two, the future Emperor Kōmei and Princess Sumiko, survived to adulthood. Her father died quite unexpectedly at the age of 45 in February 1846. He was succeeded by his only son, who became Emperor Kōmei, at the age of 14. He was known as Prince Osahito before he became Emperor.

Princess Sumiko was the elder of the three, and she celebrated her 17th birthday the day after her father’s death. The age difference between the three siblings was thus considerable. However, Chikako was known to have had an unusually close relationship with her brother, Emperor Kōmei.¹

In 1851, at the age of five, Chikako was engaged to Prince Arisugawa Taruhito. He had been adopted by her father as a potential heir and was 11 years older than Chikako. However, in 1861, Chikako was forced to break off her engagement.

On 11 March 1862, she was married to Tokugawa Iemochi.² This match was made in order to form closer ties between the shogunate (military government) and the imperial court.³ Both she and her brother had been against the match, but as the Emperor slowly changed his mind, there was no going back for Chikako. She wrote to him asking forgiveness for defying his will, but declared that she could not comply.⁴ The Emperor considered substituting Chikako with his own daughter, but she was only one year old. Chikako’s mother and her nurse were punished for allowing her to be disobedient. The nurse was threatened with her job unless she tried to persuade Chikako to consent.⁵

Eventually, Chikako agreed, but she tried to postpone the wedding to the following year. Her request was not granted. In a short poem, she wrote, “Please understand the heart of one who leaves as the water in the stream; never to return again.”⁶ Her brother seemed to have regretted now being able to protect his baby sister. He gave her the position of a Princess of the Blood, making her rank higher than her new husband and his mother. Before her departure, Chikako prayed at the Gion Shrine for a safe journey.

On 17 November 1861, she visited the palace to officially say goodbye to her brother.⁷ Chikako was the first imperial Princess to marry into the shogunate. Princess Yaso had been engaged to the 7th shōgun, Tokugawa Ietsugu, but the groom’s early death prevented a marriage from taking place. Chikako’s marriage procession was a grand one. She was accompanied by 10,000 armed men, horses, and she carried food, gifts and luggage. ⁸ The wedding itself was also on a grand scale. The entire ceremony took about ten hours, and Chikako changed her clothes several times.⁹

Her mother accompanied her to Edo Castle, amid concerns that the Princess could be held hostage. Nevertheless, it is believed that Chikako and her husband got along, and Count Katsu wrote, “Princess Kazu proved loyal to her husband after her marriage.”¹⁰ Her mother died on 10 August 1865. And then Chikako’s husband died on 29 August 1866 of heart failure. On the day of her husband’s funeral, Chikako wrote three poems. One of which is as follows:

Wear it?

How useless this,

the fine robe.

Brocade’s splendour

for life without you?¹¹

 Chikako refused to leave Edo and defied the orders from the Imperial court to return to Kyoto. She only returned to Tokyo when her nephew, Mutsuhito, known as Emperor Meiji, succeeded to the throne and the Tokugawa shogunate was abolished. She negotiated with her nephew for the peaceful surrender of Edo Castle and the continuation of the Tokugawa house under imperial government. She even welcomed her former fiancé, who came to claim the castle as the commander of the Emperor’s army. ¹²

After this, Chikako shaved her head and became a Buddhist nun with the name Seikan-in. She eventually returned to Kyoto for a visit in 1869. In August 1874, she returned permanently and devoted herself to charitable work.

In June 1877, Chikako fell ill with beri-beri (thiamine deficiency) and, on the advice of her doctors, she left for the higher elevation at Tononozawa. Unfortunately, she soon deteriorated and died on 2 September 1877 at the age of 31.¹³ During her lifetime, she had composed thousands of verses, of which 1,700 have survived.

1. Emperor of Japan, Meiji and his world 1852-1912 by Donald Keene p.52
2. Respect and Consideration by John W. Denney p.57
3. Japan encyclopedia by Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum and Käthe Roth p.502
4. The force of women in Japanese history by Mary Ritter Beard p.136-137
5. The force of women in Japanese history by Mary Ritter Beard p.137
6. The force of women in Japanese history by Mary Ritter Beard p.137
7. Emperor of Japan, Meiji and his world 1852-1912 by Donald Keene p.60
8. Emperor of Japan, Meiji and his world 1852-1912 by Donald Keene p.60
9. Emperor of Japan, Meiji and his world 1852-1912 by Donald Keene p.62
10. The force of women in Japanese history by Mary Ritter Beard p.137
11. Government by Mourning by Atsuko Hirai p.320-321
12. Government by Mourning by Atsuko Hirai p.320
13. Japanese Doctors in White Australia by John Lamb p.12