Emperor TaishÅ
The Taishō tennō (Japanese大 正 天皇) (* August 31, 1879, † December 25, 1926 ) was the 123rd Tenno of Japan and the second of the modern period. His personal name was Yoshihito (嘉仁). After his tenure, the Taishō period is named.
He was a son of the Meiji tennō Mutsuhito with Yanagiwara Naruko, a mistress at the Imperial court. As at that time he was recognized as the official child of Empress consort shoken common for children of concubines. He received on 6 September 1879 by Mutsuhito the maiden name and the title Yoshihito Haru no miya ( Prince Haru ). On 31 August 1887, he was officially appointed heir to the throne and had his formal introduction as Crown Prince on November 3, 1888.
On 10 May 1900 he married the daughter of Prince Kujo Sadako Mitchitaka who took the name Teimei. He had with her four sons:
- His successor, the Showa tennō ( proper name Hirohito )
- Prince Chichibu ( Yasuhito )
- Prince Takamatsu ( Nobuhito )
- Prince Mikasa ( Takahito )
By meningitis in childhood Yoshihito was handicapped physically and mentally. Nevertheless, he ascended the throne after the death of his father in 1912, but was kept as Tennō largely by the public. At one of his rare public appearances came at the opening of Parliament in 1913. With her he rolled his prepared speech on a sheet of paper into a tube together and looked through this role at the meeting rather than read out the speech. After 1919, he had no more public appearances. In 1921, his son Hirohito was to the death of his father in 1926, Regent.