Kazuko Takatsukasa

Kazuko Takatsukasa (鷹司 和子, Takatsukasa Kazuko, 30 September 1929 – 26 May 1989) was the wife of Toshimichi Takatsukasa and third daughter of Emperor Shōwa and Empress Kōjun. As such, she was an elder sister to the present Emperor of Japan, Emperor Akihito. Princess Taka was born at the Tokyo Imperial Palace. Her childhood appellation was Taka no miya (孝宮和子内親王, Taka no miya Kazuko Naishinnō). As was the practice of the time, she was not raised by her biological parents, but by a succession of court ladies at a separate palace built for her and her younger sisters in the Marunouchi district of Tokyo. She graduated from the Gakushuin Peer’s School in March 1948, and spent a year in the household of former Chamberlain of Japan Saburo...