Higashifushimi Kunihide

Count was the titular head of the Higashifushimi-no-miya, an extinct branch of the Imperial House of Japan, and a Buddhist monk. He was the youngest brother of Empress Kōjun and was the maternal uncle of Emperor Emeritus Akihito. If he had kept his Imperial status, at the time of his death, at age 103, he would have been the longest-lived member, of the Imperial House of Japan. His Dharma name was .

Life Count Higashifushimi Kunihide was born as Prince , the youngest child of Lieutenant Colonel Prince Kuniyoshi Kuni (1873–1929) and his wife, the former Shimazu Chikako (1879–1956). Prince Kuni's uncle, Admiral Prince Higashifushimi Yorihito, the head of the Higashifushimi-no-miya line, had no heirs; consequently, following consultations with his father, Prince Kunihide was given to the custody of his great-uncle and his wife on 26 October 1919, though not formally adopted. Upon attaining his majority in 1930, he sat in the House of Peers as an imperial prince until the following year, when the Emperor, his cousin and brother-in-law, requested him to relinquish his imperial status to perpetuate the Higashifushimi name. He was bedridden from 2006 due to orthostatic hypotension and he died on 1 January 2014, aged 103. As of 4 July 2012, when he surpassed Naruhiko, by reaching the age of 102 years and 49 days, he remains the longest-lived member of the Imperial House of Japan.

Ancestry