The Imperial House ( 皇室 , Kōshitsu ) is the reigning dynasty of Japan , consisting of those members of the extended family of the reigning emperor of Japan who undertake official and public duties. Under the present constitution of Japan , the emperor is "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people". Other members of the imperial family perform ceremonial and social duties, but have no role in the affairs of government. The duties as an emperor are passed down the line to their male children. The Japanese monarchy is the oldest continuous hereditary monarchy in the world . The imperial dynasty does not have a name, therefore its direct members do not have a family name.
43-699: The Kuni ( 久邇宮 , Kuni-no-miya ) (princely house) was the second oldest collateral branch ( ōke ) of the Japanese Imperial Family created from the Fushimi-no-miya , the oldest of the four branches of the imperial dynasty allowed to provide a successor to the Chrysanthemum throne should the main imperial line fail to produce an heir. The Kuni-no-miya house was formed in 1871 by Prince Asahiko , fourth son of Prince Fushimi Kuniye , an adopted son of Emperor Ninkō and later
86-723: A 24-piece traditional orchestra ( gagaku ) with 1,000 year-old instruments such as the koto and the shō , 30 gardeners, 25 chefs, 40 chauffeurs as well as 78 builders, plumbers and electricians. There are 30 archaeologists to protect the 895 imperial tombs. There is a silkworm breeder of the Momijiyama Imperial Cocoonery. The Emperor has four doctors on standby 24 hours a day, five men manage his wardrobe and 11 assist in Shinto rites. The Imperial Palace in Tokyo has 160 servants who maintain it. This
129-638: A 622 acres (252 ha) farm which supplies produce and meat for the Imperial Family. The farm costs were £3 million per year as of 2003 ; the emperor and his family had a monthly water bill of approximately £50,000, also as of 2003 . The Imperial Guard is a special over 900 strong police force that provides personal protection for the Emperor and other members of the Imperial Family including their residences for £48 million per year. Abe clan The Abe clan ( 安倍氏 , Abe-shi )
172-538: A close advisor to Emperor Kōmei and Emperor Meiji . He was the great great grandfather of the present Emperor of Japan , Emperor Naruhito . On October 14, 1947, Prince Kuni Asaakira and his children lost their imperial status and became ordinary citizens, as part of the American Occupation 's abolition of the collateral branches of the Japanese Imperial family. The Kuni-no-miya palace
215-518: A major court noble of the 8th century, for example, was from the town of Abe, near Nara , and derived his family name thus. A family by the name of Abe also proved significant during the Edo period , serving successively in the post of Rōjū , or Elders, who advised the Tokugawa shōgun . Again, it is difficult to determine whether or not this line was directly related to the much earlier Abe clan, but it
258-695: A number of Imperial farms, residences and game preserves. The Imperial Household Agency administers the Shosoin Imperial Repository in Nara . The Imperial properties are all owned by the State . The Emperor can spend £150 million of public money annually. The imperial palaces are all owned and paid for by the State . Until 2003, facts about the Japanese Imperial Family's life and finances were kept secret behind
301-537: A stock farm in the Chiba region. They were all transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries . Imperial property holdings were further reduced since 1947 after several handovers to the government. When Emperor Shōwa died, he left a personal fortune of £11 million in 1989. In 2017, Emperor Akihito had an estimated net worth of US$ 40 million. Currently the primary Imperial properties are
344-466: A £2 million-a-year clinic with 42 staff and 8 medical departments. An example of lavish spending is the prior redecoration of a room for £140,000 where Crown Princess Masako gave birth to Princess Aiko in 2001. Emperor Akihito spent £140,000 on building a wine cellar. It has 4,500 bottles of 11 types of white wine and seven types of red such as Chateau Mouton Rothschild (1982) and champagne Dom Perignon (1992). The Imperial properties includes
387-567: Is descended from this clan. According to the Nihon Shoki , the Abe were descended from Prince Ōhiko [ ja ] , son of Emperor Kōgen . They originated in Iga province (today Mie prefecture ); Though the clan name was originally written as 阿倍, it changed to 安倍 around the 8th century. Though this origin is not positive, it is likely. The northern region which would come to be known as
430-477: Is of an importance itself nevertheless. Abe Tadaaki was the first to serve as Rōjū , holding the post from 1633-71. He was very likely a son or other direct relation to Abe Masatsugu (1569–1647) who served Tokugawa Ieyasu and fought under him at the decisive battle of Sekigahara . Other members of the Abe family would succeed Tadaaki to the post for much of the Edo period (1603–1867), ending with Abe Masahiro , who
473-475: Is partly due to demarcation rules, such as a maid who wipes a table cannot also wipe the floor. There are also separate stewards in charge of handling silverware and the crystal. The Kyoto Imperial Palace has a staff of 78 people. There are also 67 who care for the horses at the Tochigi ranch. There are scores of additional staff for the summer palaces at the beach and in the mountains. The Imperial Palace has
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#1732782768049516-742: Is the head of the Japanese imperial family. Article 3 and 4 of the Law for Special Exception of the Imperial House Law concerning Abdication, etc. of Emperor ( 天皇の退位等に関する皇室典範特例法 , Tennō no taii nado ni kansuru Kōshitsu Tenpan Tokureihō ) define the Emperor Emeritus ( 上皇 , jōkō ) and Empress Emerita ( 上皇后 , jōkōgō ) . Article 5 of the Imperial Household Law ( 皇室典範 , Kōshitsu Tenpan ) defines
559-819: Is therefore numerous. Other terms used for the dynasty are also Kōka (皇家, Imperial House). Formerly the term Kyūshitsu (宮室, Palace Household) was also used under the old Imperial Constitution and the Imperial Household Law, as well as Teishitsu (帝室, Imperial Household). The Emperor The Empress The Emperor Emeritus The Empress Emerita Naruhito [REDACTED] Fumihito [REDACTED] Shigeru Ishiba ( LDP ) Second Ishiba Cabinet ( LDP – Komeito coalition ) [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Fukushiro Nukaga Kōichirō Genba [REDACTED] Masakazu Sekiguchi Hiroyuki Nagahama Saburo Tokura Kazuo Ueda The emperor ( 天皇 , tennō )
602-559: The Shinnōke of which the most senior branch Fushimi-no-miya (伏見宮) is first in the order of succession . Out of the Fushimi branch the Ōke branches split, which are the Kuni (久邇), Kaya (賀陽), Asaka (朝香), Higashikuni (東久邇) and Takeda (竹田) families as of 2024. Furthermore there are branches created from sons of the emperor who were excluded from the line of succession and demoted into
645-746: The Bank of Japan , other major Japanese banks, the Imperial Hotel and Nippon Yusen . After World War II , all of the 11 collateral branches of the Imperial Family were abolished under the Allied occupation of Japan , and the subsequent constitutional reforms imposed under Allied supervision forced those families to sell their assets to private or government owners. Staff numbers of the Imperial Household Ministry were slashed from roughly 6000 to about 1000. The Imperial Estates and
688-471: The Emishi or Ebisu barbarians of northern Honshū. Increasingly, as military power became privatized, this position was rotated among a few clans. In what has come to be termed the "Earlier Nine Years' War" (前九年合戦, Zenkunen kassen ), Abe Yoritoki was killed, and his son Abe no Sadato defeated, by Minamoto no Yoriyoshi and his son, Minamoto no Yoshiie . This war broke the power of the Abe family, but in
731-713: The Fushimi-no-miya . The Japanese monarchy was considered to be among the wealthiest in the world until the end of World War II . Before 1911, there was no distinction between the Imperial Crown Estates and the Emperor's personal properties. When the Imperial Property Law was enacted in January 1911, two categories were established namely hereditary (crown estates) and personal property of the Imperial Family. The Imperial Household Minister had
774-456: The Nashimoto branch in 1951, Kachō or Kwachō branch in 1970, Yamashina branch in 1987, and Kitashirakawa branch in 2018. The main Fushimi branch will become extinct upon the death of the current head, Fushimi Hiroaki (b. 1932), as he has no male offspring to succeed him; although he does not have any sons, his adoptive grandnephew has male issue who can be expected to become the head of
817-609: The Prince Takamado , and most recently, the eldest daughter of Crown Prince Akishino , left the Imperial Family upon marriage, joining the husband's family and thus taking the surname of the husband. The living eight former imperial princesses are: Additionally, there are several people of Imperial descent in the Fushimi cadet branch ( Shinnōke ), which itself consists of a main branch and five extant sub-branches ( Ōke ). The cadet royal families lost membership in
860-888: The Tokyo Imperial Palace and the Kyoto Imperial Palace . The estimated landholdings are 6,810 acres (2,760 ha). The Tōgū Palace is located in the larger Akasaka Estate where numerous other Imperial Family members reside. There are privately used imperial villas in Hayama , Nasu and the Suzaki Imperial Villa in Shimoda . The Katsura Imperial Villa , Shugakuin Imperial Villa and Sentō Imperial Palace are in Kyoto . There are
903-473: The "Chrysanthemum Curtain." Yohei Mori (former royal correspondent for the Mainichi Shimbun and assistant professor of journalism at Seijo University) revealed details about finances of the Imperial Family in his book based on 200 documents that were published with the public information law. The Japanese Imperial Family has a staff of more than 1,000 people (47 servants per royal). This includes
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#1732782768049946-507: The Abe, but were defeated. Desperate to quell this affront to their authority Kyōto appointed Minamoto Yoriyoshi as Chinjufu-shōgun . The position known as Chinjufu-shōgun , or "Commander-in-chief of the Defense of the North", was traditionally given by the court as a temporary appointment to a courtier (typically of high rank) who was appointed as a national general to quell uprisings among
989-511: The Emperor's personal fortune (then estimated at $ 17.15 million in 1946, or roughly $ 270.70 million as of 2023) were transferred to state or private ownership with the exception of 6,810 acres (2,760 ha) of landholdings. The largest imperial divestments were the former imperial Kiso and Amagi forest lands in Gifu and Shizuoka prefectures, grazing lands for livestock in Hokkaido and
1032-568: The Imperial Family by the American Occupation Authorities in October 1947, as part of the abolition of collateral imperial houses and the kazoku (hereditary peerage ). However, there are still unofficial heads of the living collateral families. These are the living Kyū-Miyake ( 旧宮家 , "former Miyake") : The Higashifushimi or Komatsu collateral branch became extinct in the male line in 1922, followed by
1075-538: The Imperial Family members ( 皇族 , kōzoku ) as the Empress ( 皇后 , kōgō ) ; the Grand empress dowager ( 太皇太后 , tai-kōtaigō ) ; the Empress dowager ( 皇太后 , kōtaigō ) ; the Emperor's legitimate sons and legitimate grandsons in the legitimate male line ( 親王 , shinnō ) , and their consorts ( 親王妃 , shinnōhi ) ; the Emperor's unmarried legitimate daughters and unmarried legitimate granddaughters in
1118-522: The Imperial Grandson and the consort of the Imperial Grandson, in addition to properties held for Imperial Family members who were minors, were exempted from taxation. Up to 1921, the Imperial Crown Estates comprised 1,112,535.58 acres (450,227.18 ha). In 1921, due to the poor economic situation in Japan, 289,259.25 acres (117,059.07 ha) of crown lands (26%) were sold or transferred to
1161-483: The Imperial properties was estimated at ¥650 million in 1935 which is approximately US$ 195 million at prevailing exchange rates and $ 19.9 billion as of 2017 . Emperor Shōwa's personal fortune was an additional hundreds of millions of yen (estimated over $ 6 billion as of 2017 ). It included numerous family heirlooms and furnishings, purebred livestock and investments in major Japanese firms, such as
1204-547: The Japanese government and the private sector . In 1930, the Nagoya Detached Palace ( Nagoya Castle ) was donated to the city of Nagoya and six other imperial villas were sold or donated. In 1939, Nijō Castle was donated to the city of Kyoto . The former Kyoto residence of the Tokugawa shogunate which became an imperial palace in the Meiji Restoration , was donated to the city of Kyoto. At
1247-516: The Kitakami river. In time, they began to have disputes with the governor of Mutsu, an office held by a branch of the Fujiwara family, which erupted into violence in 1051. The main reason given for the attack on the Abe was that they stopped paying taxes to Kyoto, and stopped contributing to the local government. The governors of Mutsu and the commander of Dewa fort combined their forces to attack
1290-486: The end of 1935, the Imperial Court owned 3,111,965 acres (1,259,368 ha) landed estates according to official government figures. 2,599,548 acres (1,052,000 ha) of that was the Emperor's private lands. The total landholdings of the crown estates was 512,161 acres (207,264 ha). It comprised palace complexes, forest and farm lands and other residential and commercial properties. The total economic value of
1333-508: The imperial family's founding is mythical, and that Jimmu is a mythical figure. Historical evidence for the first 25 emperors is scant, and they are considered mythical, but there is sufficient evidence of an unbroken agnatic line since the early 6th century. Historically, verifiable emperors of Japan start from 539 CE with Emperor Kinmei , the 29th tennō . The earliest historic written mentions of Japan were in Chinese records, where it
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1376-558: The legitimate male line ( 内親王 , naishinnō ) ; the Emperor's other legitimate male descendants in the third and later generations in the legitimate male line ( 王 , ō ) and their consorts ( 王妃 , ōhi ) ; and the Emperor's other unmarried legitimate female descendants in the third and later generations in the legitimate male line ( 女王 , joō ) . In English, shinnō (親王) and ō (王) are both translated as " prince " as well as shinnōhi (親王妃), naishinnō (内親王), ōhi (王妃) and joō (女王) as " princess ". After
1419-478: The local people who by now were a mix of Japanese immigrants and former Emishi tribesmen on behalf of the central government, but in reality the government in Kyōto simply did not have control over the region, and was recognizing this fact by appointing the Abe. The Abe for their part used their position to take control over the so-called six districts roku-oku-gun located in what is now central Iwate prefecture surrounding
1462-451: The main line of the dynasty does not have a name and is referred to as Kōshitsu (皇室, imperial house), there are agnatic cadet branches which split during the course of centuries who received their own family names in order to distinguish them from the main line. They were considered a part of the imperial family (皇族 Kōzoku ), with members carrying the title "Imperial Highness", until the laws changed in 1947. The most important branches were
1505-520: The prolonged fighting that took place the Minamoto would not have prevailed had it not been for the aid of another powerful family, the Kiyowara. The Kiyowara clan of nearby Dewa province , aided the Minamoto in defeating the Abe. Though many other major figures throughout history have been called Abe, it is difficult to know which were related to the Abe clan of Iga and Mutsu. Abe no Nakamaro ,
1548-469: The provinces of Mutsu and Dewa , was conquered by the Japanese sometime in the 9th century, and the native Emishi people there subjugated or displaced. While many provinces at this time were overseen primarily by a governor, Mutsu saw to the rise of independent families called gōzoku which administered local affairs. The Abe were appointed as "Superintendent of the Aborigines" ostensibly to control
1591-515: The ranks of the court ( kuge ) or sword ( buke ) nobility. Such families are the Minamoto (源 also known as Genji), Taira (平 also known as Heishi) and Abe (安倍), as well as through in-laws the Tachibana (橘) for example. Out of these families further branches split through male descent who were also considered noble Japanese clans . The line of legitimate direct male descendants of emperors
1634-524: The removal of 11 collateral branches from the imperial house in October 1947, the official membership of the imperial family has effectively been limited to the male-line descendants of the Emperor Taishō , excluding females who married outside the imperial family and their descendants. There are currently 16 members of the imperial family: The following family tree shows the lineage of current members of Japanese imperial family: Notes Under
1677-484: The responsibility for observing any judicial proceedings concerning Imperial holdings. According to the law, Imperial properties were only taxable if there was no conflict with the Imperial House Law. However, crown estates could only be used for public or imperially-sanctioned undertakings. Personal properties of certain members of the Imperial Family, such as Empress Dowager , the Empress, Crown Prince and Crown Princess,
1720-484: The terms of the 1947 Imperial Household Law , naishinnō (imperial princesses) and joō (princesses) lose their titles and membership in the family upon marriage, unless they marry the Emperor or another male member of the imperial family. Four of the five daughters of Emperor Shōwa , the two daughters of the Prince Mikasa , the only daughter of Emperor Emeritus Akihito , the second and third daughter of
1763-597: Was located in Azabu , Tokyo . The site is now occupied by the University of the Sacred Heart . Imperial House of Japan The imperial house recognizes 126 monarchs , beginning with Emperor Jimmu (traditionally dated to 11 February 660 BCE), and continuing up to the current emperor, Naruhito . However, scholars have agreed that there is no evidence of Jimmu's existence, that the traditional narrative of
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1806-604: Was one of the oldest of the major Japanese clans ( uji ); and the clan retained its prominence during the Sengoku period and the Edo period . The clan's origin is said to be one of the original clans of the Yamato people ; they truly gained prominence during the Heian period (794-1185), and experienced a resurgence in the 18th century. Although Abe is also a very common Japanese surname in modern times, not everyone with this name
1849-668: Was referred to as Wa (倭 later 和), which later evolved into the Japanese name of Wakoku (倭國). Suishō (帥升, ca. 107 CE) was a king of Wa, the earliest Japanese monarch mentioned in Volume 85 of the Book of the Later Han from 445 CE. Further records mention the five kings of Wa (倭の五王, Wa no go ō ), of which the last one Bu of Wa is generally considered to be Emperor Yūryaku (417/18 – 479 CE). The existence of his reign has been established through modern archaeological research. While
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