Prince Fushimi Kuniie


Kuniie, Prince Fushimi was Japanese royalty. He was the 20th/23rd prince head of the House of Fushimi and the eldest son of Prince Fushimi Sadayuki and his concubine Seiko, which made him the 11th cousin of Emperor Sakuramachi. Despite being merely a distant cousin to the emperors, he was adopted by Emperor Kōkaku as a son in 1817, which made him a full prince of the blood just like an emperor's natural-born son.
Prince Kuniie became head of the Fushimi-no-miya after the death of his father in 1841. But soon, in 1842, his eldest son, Zaihan ran away with his aunt Princess Takako, while Zaihan was a monk in Kajū-ji. Because of this scandal, the prince soon had to abdicate in favor of the only son of his wife, Prince Sadanori, who was the sixth out of 17 sons of his father. Prince Kuniie took the name Zengaku as a monk afterwards. In 1864, Kuniie succeeded as Prince Fushimi-no-miya again. After Emperor Meiji moved the capital of Japan to Tokyo, Prince Kuniie left Kyoto and moved to Tokyo with his family in 1872. He abdicated again to his second son, Prince Sadanaru, lived in seclusion, and died the same year.
He was the father of 17 princes and 14 princesses, including Prince Kuni Asahiko, Prince Yamashina Akira, Prince Higashifushimi Yorihito, Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa, Prince Fushimi Sadanaru, Prince Kan'in Kotohito, the grandfather of Japan's first post-World War II Prime Minister Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni, the great-grandfather of Empress Kōjun, and the great-great grandfather of Emperor Akihito. He was the common ancestor of the Ōke.

Marriage and Children

On January 9, 1836, Prince Kuniie married Takatsukasa Hiroko, daughter of Takatsukasa Masahiro and had 7 children. Beside his legal wife, the prince had nine concubines with whom he fathered 24 children.
Consort and issue:
Among 12 surviving sons of Prince Kuniie, 2 of them succeeded Fushimi-no-miya, other 9 were granted with Shinnōke and the other one became a count.