Princess Kazu Dies at Tōnosawa and Is Buried Beside Iemochi

Princess Kazu was both an imperial princess and the widow of Tokugawa Iemochi. After the shogunate’s fall, she moved to Kyoto in 1869 and returned to Tokyo in 1874. The political arrangement her marriage had been intended to support no longer existed, but her ties to the imperial and Tokugawa houses continued.

Suffering from beriberi, she went to Tōnosawa in Hakone for treatment. She died there on September 2, 1877. The funeral took place on September 13, with Matsudaira Kakudō acting on behalf of Tokugawa Iesato, head of the Tokugawa house. Her death was handled through the surviving household’s ceremonial arrangements, rather than the institutions of the abolished shogunate.

Although an instruction called for her body to be returned to Kyoto, she was buried at Zōjōji in Tokyo beside Iemochi, in accordance with her wishes as recorded in the temple’s account. The choice of burial joined her final resting place to the Tokugawa family while retaining the distinction of her imperial birth.