16 Facts About Tokugawa Akitake

Tokugawa Akitake was a younger half-brother of the Japanese Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu and final daimyo of Mito Domain.

Tokugawa Akitake represented the Tokugawa shogunate at the courts of several European powers during the final days of Bakumatsu period Japan.

Tokugawa Akitake was born as Matsudaira Yohachimaro, the 18th son of Tokugawa Nariaki, at the Mito Domain's secondary Edo residence in Komagome in 1853, the same year of the Perry Expedition to Japan.

In 1867, he was proclaimed head of the Shimizu-Tokugawa clan, one of the Gosankyo branches of the Tokugawa who were permitted to rise to the position of shogun.

In late 1866, aged only 14 years, Tokugawa Akitake was designated as special emissary to France and led the Japanese delegation to the 1867 World Fair in Paris, where Japan had a pavilion Shibusawa Eiichi was appointed to accountant and secretary for Tokugawa Akitake in 1866 and assigned to join the delegation to Paris.

On hearing of the start of the Boshin War, he made emergency plans to return to Japan but Tokugawa Akitake was ordered to remain in France by shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu, and it was not until August 1868 that he received word from the new Meiji government authorizing his return to Japan.

Tokugawa Akitake made a final tour of France, visiting Normandy, the Loire river valley and Nantes, and on his return to Paris, received another letter from the Meiji government advising of the death of his half-brother Tokugawa Yoshiatsu and ordering him to assume the post of daimyo to assure the stability of Mito Domain.

Tokugawa Akitake succeeded Tokugawa Yoshiatsu to become the 11th head of the Mito Tokugawa clan on his return to Japan.

Tokugawa Akitake relocated to the former shimoyashiki secondary residence of the Mito Clan located in Mukojima.

Tokugawa Akitake was appointed a second lieutenant in Imperial Japanese Army in 1875, and served as an instructor during the early days of the Imperial Japanese Army Toyama School.

Tokugawa Akitake was married to Nakanoin Eiko the same year.

Tokugawa Akitake then returned to France again for studies accompanied with his brother Tsuchiya Shigenao and half-brother Matsudaira Nobunori.

Tokugawa Akitake retired and moved to the clan's Tojotei villa in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, in 1884.

Atsuyoshi's son Tokugawa Kuniyuki was 11 years old at that time, and became the 13th head of the Mito Tokugawa under Akitake's tutelage.

However, Akitake subsequently had a son, Tokugawa Takesada, who was born to a concubine in 1888.

In 1903, Tokugawa Akitake was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure, 2nd class.