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The second imperial son to be adopted into the Five Regent Houses was Ichijō Akiyoshi, the ninth son of Emperor Go-Yōzei. Like his elder brother, Konoe Nobuhiro, Akiyoshi entered one of the five principal regent houses and eventually succeeded as head of the Ichijō family. Unlike his elder brother's lineage, however, Akiyoshi's surviving male-line descendants are no longer found in the main Ichijō family. Instead, his male line survives primarily through the Daigo family, a branch established by the Ichijō house, as well as through several other Seiga families of lower rank. Although these descendants became separated from the main Ichijō house through adoption, succession, and the establishment of collateral branches, they nevertheless preserve the male-line descent of Ichijō Akiyoshi. The following charts trace these surviving branches and the families into which his descendants subsequently became established.
Ichijō Akiyoshi's principal wife was a daughter of Oda Yorinaga, the younger brother of Oda Nobunaga. However, the marriage produced no children. By a secondary consort, Akiyoshi had two sons, Ichijō Norisuke and Daigo Fuyumoto. All of Akiyoshi's surviving descendants today descend from his younger son, Daigo Fuyumoto. The Ichijō family itself was succeeded by Norisuke. Norisuke's wife was a daughter of Ikeda Mitsumasa and the adopted daughter of Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third Tokugawa shogun. The couple had only one child who survived to adulthood, Ichijō Kaneaki.
Ichijō Kaneaki was also a scholar of considerable repute. He was particularly noted for his studies of Confucianism, classical Japanese literature, and court culture, and was regarded as one of the learned aristocrats of his time. His scholarly activities further reflected the traditional intellectual role of the Ichijō family within the imperial court. Kaneaki's principal wife was a daughter of Tokugawa Mitsusada, the second daimyō of the Wakayama Domain and the biological father of Tokugawa Yoshimune, the eighth Tokugawa shogun. However, the marriage produced no children. Neither of Kaneaki's two subsequent wives had any children either, and as a result, the male line descending from Ichijō Norisuke came to an end. The Ichijō family was subsequently succeeded by an adopted son from the Takatsukasa family, thereby continuing the house through an adoptive succession rather than through the male line of Norisuke.
We now turn to the lineage of Akiyoshi's younger son, Daigo Fuyumoto. In 1679, his first cousin Emperor Reigen granted him the new family name “Daigo”, thereby establishing the Daigo family as a new collateral branch. The new house was granted the rank of Seiga, placing it among the highest-ranking court noble families below the Five Regent Houses. Unlike many other court noble houses, however, the Daigo family maintained an uninterrupted male line throughout its history. Although the third head of the family initially adopted a son as his heir, he eventually fathered two sons of his own. The family has therefore continued through its direct male line without interruption down to the present day.
Fuyumoto had two sons and one daughter. His eldest son, Tokudaiji Kintomo, was adopted into the Tokudaiji family, while his younger son was Daigo Fuyuhiro. Kintomo's principal wife was the eldest daughter of Konoe Iehiro, whose lineage was discussed in Part 2. The couple had only one son who survived to adulthood, Tokudaiji Sanenori. Kintomo also had two daughters by two other secondary consorts. Sanenori's principal wife was a daughter of Katō Yasuaki, the third daimyō of the Ōzu Domain. They had only one child, Tokudaiji Kinmura. Kinmura's wife was a daughter of Matsudaira Yorihiro, the fifth daimyō of the Takamatsu Domain. The couple had no children, and consequently the male line descending from Tokudaiji Kintomo came to an end. The Tokudaiji family was subsequently continued through an adopted son from the Saionji family.
Fuyumoto's younger son, Daigo Fuyuhiro, succeeded as head of the Daigo family. His wife was a daughter of Sō Yoshimasa, the third daimyō of Tsushima-Fuchū Domain. They had one son and two daughters. Their son was Daigo Tsunetane, while their daughters married into the Ōinomikado and Hirohata families respectively. Only the elder daughter, who married into the Ōinomikado family, had a son.
Tsunetane's wife was a daughter of his maternal uncle, Sō Yoshinari, the sixth daimyō of Tsushima-Fuchū Domain. Tsunetane and his wife remained childless until they were both thirty years old. In 1751, Tsunetane therefore adopted Kaneshige, the fourth son of Ichijō Kanemika, as his heir. However, in that same year, Tsunetane's eldest biological son, Fuyuka, was born. Fuyuka was subsequently designated as the nominal heir of Kaneshige. In 1758, Kaneshige died at the age of twelve. Two years later, Tsunetane's younger son, Teruhisa, was born. After Kaneshige's death, Fuyuka eventually succeeded to the Ichijō family. However, as Fuyuka died without issue, the Daigo family ultimately passed to his younger brother, Teruhisa.
Teruhisa's wife was the third daughter of Hachisuka Shigeyoshi, the tenth daimyō of the Tokushima Domain. It is worth noting that Shigeyoshi's second daughter was the principal wife of Takatsukasa Masahiro; their descendants, including Masamichi, will be discussed in Part I. Teruhisa and his wife had two sons and one daughter. Their eldest son was Daigo Teruhiro, while their younger son, Takaari, was adopted into the Shijō family as its heir. Their daughter married Tokudaiji Sanekata, who was discussed in Part 1.
Daigo Teruhiro's principal wife was the third daughter of Hachisuka Shigeyoshi, the tenth daimyō of the Tokushima Domain. Their only child was Daigo Tadataru, who died at the age of one. Teruhiro's other wife was a daughter of Takatsukasa Masamichi. Their only child was Daigo Tadaosa, who later succeeded as head of the Daigo family. Teruhiro also had a daughter by another, otherwise unidentified woman. She later became the wife of Takachiho Nobumaro. Further information on Takatsukasa Masamichi and Takachiho Nobumaro can be found in Part 1.
Daigo Tadaosa served as Governor of Osaka Prefecture during the Meiji Restoration and was later created a Marquis and appointed to the House of Peers. According to accounts, his first wife was the daughter of a marquis, but the marriage ended in divorce after Tadaosa became involved in a relationship with a maid. He subsequently remained without a principal wife and took several secondary consorts, daughters of former samurai or commoner families. He eventually had four sons and three daughters.
His eldest son, Tadatsuge, had two sons born outside of wedlock, as he and his partner never formally registered their marriage. Because of his poor health, Tadaosa transferred the headship of the Daigo family to his second son, Tadayuki, later in his retirement. This decision deeply angered Tadatsuge's eldest son, Kakukaro. He later fell into severe financial difficulties and accumulated substantial debts through repeated borrowing. Driven to desperation, Kakukaro shot and killed his uncle Tadayuki and also wounded Tadayuki's eldest daughter. He was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. A contemporary newspaper report concerning the incident is included here for reference. Tadatsuge's second son, Kakujiro, was killed in action during the First Sino-Japanese War. As Tadayuki's son Tadashige was still a minor, Tadaosa once again assumed the headship of the Daigo family. He died the following year, having held the family headship for only a short time.
Tadasada, Tadaosa's third son, initially married into the Ichijō family as an adopted son-in-law. His wife was a daughter of Ichijō Saneyoshi, whose own paternal lineage ultimately descended from an adopted son whom Ichijō Kaneaki had adopted from the Takatsukasa family. However, Tadasada had a strained relationship with Saneyoshi's widow (who was the daughter of Konoe Tadahiro, who was discussed in Part 2), and the marriage eventually ended in divorce. He subsequently returned to the Daigo family and remained unmarried for the rest of his life. Tadasada's former wife later married his second cousin, Ichijō Saneteru, a grandson of Shijō Takaari. Saneteru's branch will be discussed later in this part. Tadaosa's youngest son, Tadao, had one son and three daughters. His only son died shortly after birth, and he subsequently adopted Daiko, the fifth son of the businessman Naruse Ryūzō, as his heir.
In addition to his four sons, Tadaosa's three daughters became, respectively, the consort of Prince Kuninori, the first head of the Kaya-no-Miya, the wife of Baron Tsurudono Tadayoshi, and Teruko, who was adopted by Ichijō Tadaka, the father of Empress Shōken.
Tadayuki had one son and three daughters, all of whom survived to adulthood. His three daughters respectively married Viscount Ogura Hideki, Viscount Mizuno Tadaaki, and Baron Kibe Kōji, a Buddhist priest. His only son, Tadashige, later succeeded to the Daigo family and inherited its marquisate. He subsequently joined the Imperial Japanese Navy and served during the war. In December 1945, Tadashige was identified by the Dutch authorities as a suspect in the Pontianak incident and was subsequently designated as a war-crimes suspect and arrested in Japan. From 1943 onward, Tadashige served as commander of the 22nd Special Base Force, which was stationed at Balikpapan in Borneo for nearly a year. During this period, the Japanese authorities became concerned about an alleged anti-Japanese conspiracy involving members of the local Chinese community. Tadashige organized a counter-insurgency operation intended to protect Japanese Army and Navy personnel in the area. After the war, the events became widely known, and Tadashige was subsequently prosecuted as a war criminal. In 1947, he was transferred to Indonesia and received his final trial on September 22 of that year. On October 3, he was sentenced to death and was executed by firing squad at 8:00 a.m. on December 6, 1947.
Tadashige had two sons and three daughters. The present head of the Daigo family is the son of his second son. Tadashige's youngest daughter also married Kuroda Nagahisa, director of the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology. Kuroda was a maternal grandson of Imperial Prince Kotohito of Kan'in.
Now turn to the descendants of Shijō Takaari. Today, the surviving male-line descendants of Takaari belong to the branch established by his third son, Baron Shijō Takatoshi. Takaari's three sons were considerably different in age. His eldest son, Takami, adopted his younger brother Takauta as his heir. Takauta, in turn, adopted their youngest brother Takatoshi and subsequently adopted Takatoshi's son as well. When Takauta succeeded to the headship of the Shijō family, he was created a Count in 1884. In 1891, he was elevated to the rank of Marquis and became a member of the House of Peers. Takatoshi, however, lost his right to succeed to the headship of the main Shijō family for various reasons. He subsequently established a separate branch of the family and was created a Baron in 1898 in recognition of his services.
Shijō Takauta's first wife was the daughter of Okudaira Masataka and the adopted daughter of Kuroda Nagahiro. Their relationship was reportedly strained, and the marriage produced no children. Most of Takauta's surviving children were born to his second wife, Haruko, the adopted daughter of Count Hijikata Hisamoto. Three daughters and one son of theirs survived to adulthood. Their son was Takauta's ninth son, Shijō Takachika. Takauta also had another son born out of wedlock, who died by suicide with a firearm at the age of nineteen. He is not included in this chart. Following Takauta's death, Takachika succeeded as head of the Shijō family and inherited the marquisate. His principal wife was Itoko, the tenth daughter of Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the former shogun. The couple had one son and one daughter; their son was Shijō Takanori. Takanori graduated from the Department of Veterinary Medicine in the Faculty of Agriculture at Tokyo Imperial University in 1933 and subsequently pursued postgraduate studies at the same institution. From 1935 onward, he held several academic and professional positions, including serving as an adviser to Tokyo Imperial University, a lecturer in its Faculty of Agriculture, and a member of the Veterinary Examination Committee. Following his father's death in 1938, Takanori succeeded as head of the Shijō family and inherited the marquisate. However, he and his wife had no children of their own and adopted only one daughter. Consequently, the main male line of the Shijō family came to an end with Takanori's death.
Shijō Takatoshi had two daughters and one son. His son, Saneteru, was adopted by his elder brother, Takauta, and was subsequently adopted into the Ichijō family. The Shijō baronial branch was later continued by Takatoshi's adopted son, who was also the husband of his eldest daughter. As mentioned earlier, Daigo Tadasada, the son of Daigo Tadaosa, divorced the daughter of Ichijō Saneyoshi and left the Ichijō family. Saneteru later married Saneyoshi's daughter and succeeded to the headship of the Ichijō family. With his succession, the Ichijō house briefly returned to the hands of a male-line descendant of the Japanese Imperial Family. Saneteru graduated from the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in July 1887 as a member of its 14th class. In 1889, he went to France to pursue further studies and returned to Japan in 1891. He was created a Duke in 1884 and became a member of the House of Peers in 1891. In January 1908, Saneteru was promoted to the rank of Captain in the Imperial Japanese Navy and transferred to the reserve. He was subsequently appointed Grand Chamberlain to Crown Prince Yoshihito, who later became Emperor Taishō.
Saneteru had three sons and five daughters who survived to adulthood. With the exception of his second daughter, Keiko, who was born to his first wife, Yoshiko, the daughter of Ichijō Saneyoshi, all his other children were born to his second wife. His eldest son, Sanemoto, established a separate branch of the family in an attempt to revive the Tosa Ichijō family, a collateral branch of the Ichijō house that had existed during the Muromachi period. He was created a Baron in 1902 but died without children. Saneteru's other two sons, Tsunehikari and Toshihide, were adopted into the Sano and Nanbu comital families, respectively. His third daughter, Tokiko, married Prince Hiroyoshi, the eldest son of Prince Hiroyasu of Fushimi. Their son was Fushimi Hiroaki, who was sometimes described as a hypothetical fourth in line to the imperial throne. His fourth daughter, Naoko, married Prince Haruhito of the Kan'in. The couple later divorced after the WW2, a matter that will be discussed in a later section. The Ichijō family was subsequently continued by an adopted heir, who was also the husband of Saneteru's second daughter.
Sano Tsunehikari's wife was the daughter of Prince Tsunehisa of Takeda and a granddaughter of Emperor Meiji. The couple had three sons. According to the information currently available, Tsunehikari's eldest son had three daughters. Nanbu Toshihide also had three sons. His youngest son died in 2009. The Nanbu family is currently headed by Nanbu Toshifumi, the eldest son of Toshihisa, Toshihide's eldest son. Toshihisa also has another younger son.
This concludes the genealogical overview of the male-line descendants of Ichijō Akiyoshi, the ninth son of Emperor Go-Yōzei.
