Biography
Princess Sadako Kujō was born in Tokyo, as the fourth daughter of Prince (Duke) Michitaka Kujō, head of Kujō branch of the Fujiwara clan, and Noma Ikuko.
She married then-Crown Prince Yoshihito (the future Emperor Taishō) on 25 May 1900. The couple lived in the newly constructed Akasaka Palace in Tokyo, outside of the main Tokyo Imperial Palace complex. 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 have given birth to the official heir to the throne 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 Japanese Red Cross Society. The relations between the Emperor and Empress were very good, as evidenced by Emperor Taishō’s lack of interest in taking concubines, thus breaking with hundreds of years of imperial tradition, and by her giving birth to four sons.
After the death of Emperor Taishō on 25 December 1926, her title became that of Dowager Empress ( 皇太后, Kōtaigō?) (which means "widow of the former emperor"). She openly objected to Japan's involvement in World War II, which caused conflict with her son, Hirohito. From 1943, she also worked behind the scene with her younger son Prince Takamatsu Nobuhito to bring the downfall of Prime Minister Hideki Tōjō.
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.
Read more about this topic: Empress Teimei
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