was a member of a collateral line of the Japanese imperial family who played a key role in the Meiji Restoration. Prince Asahiko was an adopted son of Emperor Ninkō and later a close advisor to Emperor Kōmei and Emperor Meiji. He was the great-great-grandfather of the present Emperor of Japan, Naruhito.
Early life
Prince Asahiko was born in Kyoto, the fourth son of Prince Fushimi Kuniye, the twentieth head of 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 house fail to produce an heir.
The future Prince Asahiko had several childhood appellations and acquired several more titles and names over the years. He was often known as Prince Asahiko (Asahiko Shinnō) and Prince Nakagawa (Nakagawa-no-miya). and the Tairō during the final illness of Shōgun Tokugawa Iesada. When Ii launched the Ansei Purge, the prince was condemned to perpetual confinement at Shōkoku-ji and spent more than two years living in a tiny, dilapidated hut.