Duke Takatsukasa Hiromichi
Takatsukasa Hiromichi (April 2, 1855 – May 17, 1918), son of Kujo Hisatada and adopted son of Takatsukasa Sukehiro, was a kazoku Duke of the Meiji period who served in Imperial Japanese Army. Nobusuke and Nobuhiro were his sons. He is the eleventh adopted son of Takatsukasa Masamichi. His biological father is Kujo Hisatada. Hiromichi began a military career after initially being entrusted as a child to the Sanho-in (Buddhist temple), and destined for an ecclesiastical career. In 1872, he was sent to Germany for military training. After his return, he attended the Koyama military school, where he received his commission as a lieutenant in 1879. A good horseman, he later rose to the rank of General Staff and Court Grand Marshal to Emperor Yoshihito. He married Yasuko, daughter of Tokusama Iesato. His sons are Nobusuke (1890-1959), Nobuhiro (1892-1981), Nobutaka as well as Nobuatsu (1893-1941), who is adopted by the royal family. He also had a daughter Fusako (1887-1918) and adopted another from Matsuzono Naoyoshi.
The Imperial Guard of Japan has been two separate organizations dedicated to the protection of the Emperor of Japan and the Imperial Family, palaces and other imperial properties. The first was the Imperial guard divisions (Konoe Shidan), a quasi-independent elite branch of the Imperial Japanese Army, which was dissolved shortly after World War II. The Imperial Guard of the Imperial Japanese Army was formed in 1867. It became the foundation of the Imperial Japanese Army after the Emperor Meiji assumed all the powers of state during the Meiji Restoration. The Imperial Guard, which consisted of 12,000 men organized and trained along French military lines, first saw action in the Satsuma Rebellion. It was organized into the 1st Guards Infantry Brigade, which had the 1st and 2nd Regiments. The 3rd and 4th Regiments belonged to the 2nd Guards Infantry Brigade. By 1885 the Imperial Japanese Army consisted of seven divisions, one of which was the Imperial
Guard. A division consisted of four regiments containing an HQ and two battalions each. The Imperial Guard division was based in Tokyo and was recruited on national lines; officers were also drawn nationally. After the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, a second Guard Brigade was formed from indigenous Formosans.
Takatsukasa family (Takatsukasa-ke) is a Japanese aristocratic kin group. The Takatsukasa was a branch of the Fujiwara clan and one of the Five regent houses, from which Sessho and Kampaku could be chosen. The Takatsukasa family was founded by Fujiwara no Kanehira (1228-1294), who was the sixth son of Konoe Iezane; he was also the first to take this family name, named after the section of Kyoto in which the household resided. The Takatsukasa family, for the first time, died out in the Sengoku period following the death of Tadafuyu, 13th head of the family, in 1546. Later in 1579, with the assistance of Oda Nobunaga, the third son of Nijo Haruyoshi took the name Takatsukasa Nobufusa and revived the household. Nobufusa's daughter Takako married Iemitsu, the third Tokugawa shogun. In 1884, Hiromichi, the head of the Takatsukasa family, became a prince in the kazoku system.
Awards: Sash, collar and star of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum (Dai-kun'i kikka-sho), Stars of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers (Toka sho), the Order of the Rising Sun (Kyokujitsu-sho), the Order of the Sacred Treasure (Zuiho-sho) and of the Order of the Golden Kite (Kinshi Kunsho).
