Empress Teimei (貞明皇后, Teimei Kōgō?) (25 June 1884 – 17 May 1951) was empress consort of Japan. Born Sadako Kujō (九条節子, Kujō Sadako?), she was the consort of Emperor Taishō and the mother of Emperor Shōwa. Her posthumous name, Teimei, means "enlightened constancy".
Princess Sadako Kujō was born in Tokyo, as the daughter of Prince Michitaka Kujō, head of Kujō branch of the Fujiwara clan, and Noma Ikuko. She married then-Crown Prince Yoshihito on 25 May 1900, the future Emperor Taishō. When she gave birth to a son, prince Hirohito, the future Emperor Shōwa in 1901, she was the first official wife of a Crown Prince or Emperor to do so since 1750.
She became Empress (Kōgō) when her husband ascended to the throne on 30 July 1912. Given her husband's weak physical and mental condition, she exerted a strong influence on imperial life, and was an active patron of Japan's Red Cross Society.
After the death of Emperor Taishō on 25 December 1926, she was known as the Dowager Empress (which means "widow of the former emperor"). She openly objected to Japan's involvement in World War II, which caused conflict with her son. From 1943, she also worked behind the scene with her son Nobuhito Takamatsu to bring the downfall of Hideki Tojo.
She died at Omiya Palace in Tokyo, aged 66, and was buried next to her husband, Emperor Taishō, in the Tama no higashi no misasagi (多摩東陵) at Musashino Imperial Mausoleum in Tokyo.
Gallery
Empress Teimei in formal robes, 1912
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See also
References
- Bix, Herbert B. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. Harper Perennial (2001). ISBN 0-06-093130-2
- Fujitani,T. Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan. University of California Press; Reprint edition (1998). ISBN 0-520-21371-8
- Hoyt, Edwin P. Hirohito: The Emperor and the Man. Praeger Publishers (1992). ISBN 0-275-94069-1
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