Tokugawa Iemo and Miyagi: Love in the Last Years of the Shogunate

The first year of the Japanese Bunkhisa, 1861 AD. Emperor Hitoshi's imperial daughter, Prince Wakamiya, traveled from Kyoto via The NakasenDo for 25 days to reach Edo and temporarily take up residence at Kiyomizu Residence. On the 11th of the following month, he moved to Edo Castle, Honmaru Daio, and became the imperial residence of Tokugawa Ieshige, the 14th shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate. This period of history is called the marriage of the palace.

Prince Wakamiya was the widowed daughter of Emperor Hitoshi, and her father had died at the time of her birth. Although he did not have the love of his father, the newly enthroned Emperor Xiaoming, the half-brother of The Palace, took good care of his young sister. When Hegong was six years old, he became engaged to Prince Akihito of Arisugawa Palace. When Hegong grew up, he was also in love with the prince, and even carefully prepared a harmony song to be dedicated to the person he wanted when he was newly married.

However, the situation in Japan was turbulent at that time, since Perry's voyage in 1853, the Western powers invaded, the Tokugawa shogunate made treaties with various countries, and the shogunate opened ports for trade. This made the Zhongzhong Emperor Shuyi faction dissatisfied and brewed the curtain. After the "Ansei Prison", in order to alleviate the call for the fall of the princes, the Samu faction, led by Ando Nobumasa, instigated the theory of "public-military integration" (gong refers to the imperial court, takeshiki shogunate), and asked the imperial court to marry Theogawa Ieshige, the daughter of Emperor Hitoshige, the sister of Emperor Hyomaki, and the prince of the palace. Emperor Xiaoming, who did not have the tendency to overthrow the curtain, himself also advocated the "combination of public and military forces", hoping to combine the power of the imperial court and the shogunate in order to achieve the goal of overthrowing the emperor.

He broke off his marriage contract with Prince Tsukihito and married kanto. When Hegong learned of this news, he was naturally very rebellious. At first, Wasomiya would rather cut his hair and become a nun than marry kanto. However, the persuasion of those around him, Emperor Hyomyō's "You alone endure humiliation and burden, you can exchange for the peace of the world" (NHK Dahe drama "Du Ji"), and Prince Akikawa Miya chose to break the marriage contract with Wakamiya under pressure from all sides, and Wagyu finally agreed. On October 20 of the first year of The Bunkehire, Hemiya bid farewell to Kyoto, where he had given birth to him, and set off for Edo.

When Hegong first entered Theo, due to his reluctance to marry, coupled with the completely different living habits and atmosphere of the gong family and the samurai family, it was very unpleasant to get along with the people of the Daiao. In particular, the concubine of Ieshige, who came from the Satsuma samurai family, was very dissatisfied with the arrogance of the palace. And Wakamiya himself, who prides himself on his status as an imperial daughter and the style of the public family, also scorns everything in the Great Ao. Fortunately, Jia Mao is very kind to his wife, there is no indifference to political marriage, and he really treats her as a wife. At the first meeting, he asked her with concern whether the mountain wind was biting in the way; he tolerated her arrogance and willfulness; in the face of her indifference, he chose to be honest with her: "As my most important person, my wife, I will be sincere to you and will definitely make you happy" (NHK Dahe drama "Du Ji").

Hegong looked at this gentle man who had been said to be a ghost before, but he had fallen. They had a very sweet time, the two of them played together, watched the scenery, fed the fish, and the relationship between the two was extremely harmonious, which was very rare in the relationship between the shoguns of the shogunate and the Godaisho. Because the Imperial Terrace is basically a decoration for the general, a symbolic existence. And even when Hegong was physically unable to give birth to an heir, Ieshige refused to take another concubine in order to have children. Although the two were politically married, they were unexpectedly loving and harmonious.

However, the good times did not last long, and although the marriage between the two people out of national stability was sweet and stable, the situation in the country was becoming more and more severe. The cries for the king to overthrow the curtain were getting louder and louder, and as a general, JiaMao, faced with complicated political affairs, various forces, complex and dangerous environments and various events, made the proper deeds of a heroic monarch. However, due to excessive fatigue and the irrational diet of the Japanese nobles at that time, Ieshige finally died of beriberi heart disease in Osaka Castle on July 20, 1866.

In Edo, Hegong was still praying for the safe return of her husband, but unexpectedly received the news of Ieshige's death. Grief-stricken Hegong was sent home in December of the same year, and Emperor Xiaoming gave the name Jingkuanyuan Palace, and the legal name Jingkuanyuan gave a good reputation to Prince Nei and Shunzhen Gong's eldest sister.

During the Fall Campaign, at the request of the 15th shogun Tokugawa Keiki, Kazumiya lobbied with the Already Frozen Tenjo-in Temple, and the Imperial Daughter and The Palace from the public family lobbied to the imperial court, while the Tenjo-in Temple negotiated the terms with the Fallen Curtain Army, and Ōo was able to achieve the peaceful dissolution of the bloodless Kaijo Castle, and both of them contributed a lot to the survival of the Tokugawa family. After Edo opened the city without blood, Watsumiya returned to Kyoto. Emperor Meiji moved the capital to Edo (present-day Tokyo) and was invited by Emperor Meiji to return to the Imperial Residence in Edo Castle until his death.

On September 2, 1877, Prince Wakamiya died in Hakone, a place of cultivation, due to the same cause as Ieshige, and was buried with Tokugawa Iemitsu at Shōjo-ji Temple. Wasong once left a Japanese song on his deathbed: るとても, 今は甲斐なき, Tang ごろも, 綾もも, 君ありてこそ (draped in Ayara brocade, my beauty is only for you to appreciate. But O man I love, you are no longer in this world.) This is probably the last mourning she wrote to her deceased husband.