Early Life
The future Princess was born in Tokyo on 26 December 1911, as Tokugawa Kikuko. She was the second daughter of Tokugawa Yoshihisa (2 September 1884 - 22 January 1922) (peer) and his wife Princess Mieko of Arisugawa (14 February 1891 - 25 April 1933). Her paternal grandfather was Tokugawa Yoshinobu, Japan's last shogun. Her maternal grandfather, Prince Arisugawa Takehito, was the seventh head of the Arisugawa-no-miya, one of the four shinnÅke or collateral branches of the Imperial Family during the Edo period entitled to provide a successor to the throne in default of a direct heir. Lady Tokugawa Kikuko received her primary and secondary education at the then-girls' department of the Gakushuin. At age eighteen, she became engaged to Prince Takamastu, who was then third-in-line to the Chrysanthemum throne.
Read more about this topic: Princess Takamatsu
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“In an early spring
We see thappearing buds, which to prove fruit
Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair
That frosts will bite them.”
—William Shakespeare (15641616)
“Death does determine life.... Once life is finished it acquires a sense; up to that point it has not got a sense; its sense is suspended and therefore ambiguous. However, to be sincere I must add that for me death is important only if it is not justified and rationalized by reason. For me death is the maximum of epicness and death.”
—Pier Paolo Pasolini (19221975)