Nakayama Tadamitsu (中山忠光)
Tadamitsu NAKAYAMA (1845 May 18 - December 13, 1864) is a court noble in the end of Edo period.
The seventh son of Gon Dainagon (provisional major counselor), Tadayasu NAKAYAMA. His mother is Aiko NAKAYAMA, the daughter of Hirado Domain, Kiyoshi MATSUURA. The real mother of the Emperor Meiji, Yoshiko NAKAYAMA, is the older sister of his mother. The lawful wife is the daughter Tomiko, of Kiyoshi MATSUURA, Hirado Domain, and his lawful wife Fudeko (daughter of Shigehide SHIMAZU). There was no daughter between him and Tomiko, but while he was hiding in Chofu which was the branch domain of the Choshu clan, he met his concubine, Tomi ONCHI, the local female, and had a daughter Nakako (Nanka, Kinto SAGA consort of the emperor).
Biography
From the early times, he joined with the patriot of the Sonnojoi ha (supporters of the doctrine of restoring the emperor and expelling the barbarians), such as Torataro YOSHIMURA, and Izumi MAKI, and in the boycott of the kobu-gattai (party of advocating Kobu-Gattai which unites the court and the shogunate) he was the vanguard of conduct.
In February 1863, when Kokuji yoriudo was newly established in the court, he was added to this group at the age of 19, but he secretly escaped Kyoto, and joined the Choshu clan, turned down his official court rank and changed his name to Shunsai (Shusai) MORI. He participated in the attack of the foreign ship in Shimonoseki as the head of Komyo-ji Party lead by Genzui KUSAKA.
On September 13, when the edict of imperial visit from Yamato Province was given out, he stated that he would obey the orders of the vanguard for the principle of excluding foreigners, and left Kyo, and together with YOSHIMURA he attacked the magistrate's office in Yamato Gojo, and raised an army (Tenchu-gumi incident).
However due to the coup on September 18, when the radical party advocating reverence for the Emperor in Kyoto were wiped out, he was abandoned by the imperial court, and was suppressed by Hikone Domain, and Kishu Domain warriors who were ordered by Edo government to track down and kill. Tadamitsu escaped to Osaka, then to Choshu.
Choshu Domain had their branch, Chofu clan take care and protect Tadamitsu, but during the Kinmon incident in 1864, in Shimonoseki War, when the conventional party within the domain gained power due to the First Conquest of Choshu, he was assassinated in Tako Village, Toyoura District of Chofu Domain in the December of the same year he was kept as a refuge.
The concubine Tomi ONCHI, who was loved by Tadamitsu while he was hiding under the Chofu Domain, had the bereaved child Nakako after Tadamitsu was murdered. Tomiko, the lawful wife of Tadamitsu adopted and raised Nakako, and in order to raise her as the princess of the court noble, she became an adopted daughter of Mori clan, the family lord of Chofu Domain, and was taken in by the court noble, Nakayama clan. Tomiko raised Nakako with great care, as a remembrance of her deceased husband, and Nakako became Kinto SAGA consort of the emperor after the restoration. Also, Hiro SAGA from Ogimachisanjo clan (Saga clan) who was married to Fuketsu AISHINKAKURA, the younger brother of Fugi AISHINKAKURA, the last emperor of Shin, the later emperor of Manchukuo, is the grandchild of Tadamitsu's only daughter, and was the great grandchild for the couple (although for Tomiko she was the great grandchild of her adopted daughter).
The graveyard is located in the premises of Nakayama-jinja Shirine, Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture.