Takehito actually died on 5th July 1913 at Maiko near Kobe where the Arisugawa family had its country residence. (not 4th or 6th as quoted by Taliaferro/Sozynski). It seems to have been considered unsuitable for members of the imperial family to die outside Tokyo and so his body was brought back to the capital on the 10th July and the pretence mainained that he was still alive. He was announced as having died at 8.20 pm, 40 minutes after returning to his official residence. (souce the prince's official biography "Takehito Shinno gyojitsu"). It is also worth mentioning that the prince was made a Field Marshal and awarded the Collar of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum on the 7th July i.e. post mortem but officially during his lifetime.
The same source also records that on the 22nd June 1913 ViscountChiaki Watanabe, the Imperial Household Minister, visited Takehito Shinno to discuss the question of his successor and that a letter was sent to the prince on the 6th July informing him that Nobuhito Shinno had been created Takamatsu no Miya.
Hamish
--Previous Message--
:
: Jeffrey Taliaferro's material (
: http://www.geocities.com/jtaliaferro.geo/showa.html
: ) mentions that Nobuhito, then 8 years old,
: was granted Takamatsu-no-miya following the
: death of Takehito Arisugawa:
: "Following the death of Prince
: Arisugawa (Takehito) without an heir on 6
: July 1913, Emperor Taishō granted
: Prince Nobuhito the title Takamatsu-no-miya
: (which had been the original title of the
: Arisugawa-no-miya house)."
: [Henry Soszynski, not always reliable,
: however places Arisugawa's death two days
: earlier, same year: "He died spm 4th
: July 1913 in Tokyo, when this branch of the
: family became extinct."]
:
: Elsewhere in the Taliaferro material is a
: date for Nobuhito's creation: "cr.
: Takamatsu-no-miya, 14 Jul. 1913", in
: other words, a week or so after last
: Arisugawa's death, be it 4th or 6th July.
:
: I have an inkling that emperor Yoshihito
: 'Taisho' tenno had already during the
: lifetime of Takehito Arisugawa, informed the
: old (or, rather, middle-aged) sonless shinno
: about such intentions.
: Which can be seen as designation of heir to
: the miyake during the predecessor's last
: years. Mentioned sources speak against an
: interpretation that the young Nobuhito were
: yet so created, when the previous holder was
: still alive.
:
: Adoptions were forbidden by the new
: dynastical law as Hamish informed us; and I
: gather Takehito Arisugawa never actually
: adopted Nobuhito. The emperor's designation
: of the heir, and informing Arisugawa of it,
: probably meant to replace the legal act of
: adopting, to have the intended succession
: still in keeping with shinto succession
: patterns, which clearly were those intended
: to be continued by the designation.
:
: I can see no propriety mistake in describing
: Nobuhito as 11th Takamatsu-no-miya.
: However, it really depends on Japanese
: customs, as applied to the situation where
: adoption had recently become forbidden.
: Perhaps some would want to highlight the
: fact that adoption was no longer possible,
: by mentioning Nobuhito as 'first' Takamatsu;
: and possibly others would see him as 11th of
: the continuous miyake.
: One can always take whatever happens to be
: the IHA official record of that detail; or
: take what was the most common
: interpretation, in royalty publications and
: such; or take what the long-time Japanese
: custom (as opposed to the novel prohibition
: of adoptions) would mean; but any of them
: really may just reflect one of the two
: stances to the matter, without being
: necessarily totally correct.
:
: I guess, were I to write it into some text
: intended to be a work of reference, I would
: mention both interpretations of the ordinal.
:
:
:
: --Previous Message--
: Hello Hamish,
:
:
:
: I have been thinking about the
: Arisugawa/Takamatsu title. Should one
: consider Prince Nobuhito as the 11th Prince
: Takamatsu? I gather that it is considered
: correct to regard the 1st of the line as
: Prince Yoshihito, son of Emperor Yozei (II)
: and Prince Yukihito, son of Emperor Sai (II)
: as the 3rd title holder. Are these
: assumptions correct according to Japanese
: custom?
:
: Cheers,
: Christopher
:
: --Previous Message--
: Mieko was the daughter of Arisugawa no Miya
: Takehito and his wife Yasuko Maeda.
: Takehito was the younger half-brother of
: Arisugawa no Miya Taruhito Shinno (NB not
: Tomohito Ethere was no prince of that name
: in the House of Arisugawa). Both were sons
: of Arisugawa no Miya Takahito Shinno
: (1812-1886). Taruhito was the eldest (by
: Yuko Saeki, d 1841), Takehito was the 4th
: and youngest (by Noriko Mori, d 1902).
: Adoption by members of the Imperial Family
: was forbidden by the Imperrial House Law of
: 1889 so when Takehito died in 1913, having
: outlived his only son Tanehito O
: (1887-1908), the Arisugawa no Miyake
: officially became extinct. However in July
: 1913 Emperor Taisho gave his 3rd son
: Nobuhito the title Takamatsu no Miya,
: Takamatsu being the original name of the
: Arisugawa no Miyake. Nobuhito in due course
: married Miekos daughter Kikuko.
:
:
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