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Toshimichi Takatsukasa (鷹司 平通, Takatsukasa Toshimichi, 26 August 1923 – 27 January 1966), son of Prince Nobusuke, was a Japanese researcher of railways and trains.

Ancestry

Son of Prince Nobusuke, a politician and ornithologist who later became head priest of the Meiji Shrine, and Yasuko Tokugawa [ja] (1897-1976), a descendant of Tokugawa Yoshinao, Takatsukasa Toshimichi was born into an aristocratic family, but like all Japanese aristocrats, lost his title with the post-war legal reforms of 1947.

Career

Takatsukasa worked at TEI Park, a railroad museum in Tokyo. He was a government railways official. His article "90 Years of Japanese Railways" was published in 1962, in the journal New Japan.

In 1966, Takatsukasa Toshimichi was found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in the apartment of his mistress, a Ginza hostess.

Personal life

Takatsukasa married the third daughter of Emperor Hirohito, Princess Kazuko. At the time of the wedding, Life magazine described him as "a commoner cousin of grandmother's who makes $22.22 a week in the Government Railway Museum". In another international media report it was noted that "The bridegroom ... is son of the chief priest of the Meiji Shrine and holds a $10-a-week job in a railway museum." They had no biological children but adopted a son from the Ogyū-Matsudaira family, Naotake [ja] (born 1945), who would become president of Japan Telecommunications System Corporation (NEC Communication Systems) and head priest of the Ise Jingu Shrine; since 2022 he has been chairman of Kasumi Kaikan, an association for former kazoku, and a director of the Wild Bird Society of Japan, amongst other positions. Naotake's heir as head of the Takatsukasa family is his son, Naomichi [ja] (born 1974).

Ancestry

References

1. Mohri, Hideo (26 March 2019). Imperial Biologists: The Imperial Family of Japan and Their Contributions to Biological Research. Springer. p. 74. ISBN 978-981-13-6756-4.
2. "Have any Asian royals 'done a Megxit'?". South China Morning Post. 20 January 2020. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
3. The Asia Who's Who, Pan-Asia Newspaper Alliance, 1957, p. 484
4. New Japan, vol. 14, Mainichi Newspapers Co., 1962, p. 130
5. Life, vol. 28, no. 23, ed. Henry R. Luce, Time Inc., 1950, p. 28- "Democratic nuptials"
6. Pathfinder, vol. 57, Farm Journal Inc., 1950, p. 25
7. https://www.keidanren.or.jp/journal/monthly/201310_taidan.pdf

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