Prince Kan'in
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-->His Imperial Highness Prince Kan'in (Kotohito) of Japan (Kan'in-no-miya Kotohito Shinnō) (10 November 1865 - 21 May 1945), was a member of the Japanese imperial family and a career army officer who served as chief of staff of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1931 to 1940. The adopted brother of HIM Emperor Meiji and a scion of the Fushimi-no-miya, he was a great uncle to both Emperor Shōwa and his consort, Empress Kōjun.
Prince Kotohito ō was born in Kyoto on 10 November 1865, the sixteenth son of Fushimi no miya Kuniye (1802 - 1875). His father was twentieth head of the Fushimi-no-miya, one of the four shinnōke, branches of the Imperial Family which are eligible to succeed to the Chrysanthemum Throne if the main line should die out. Since the infant mortality rate in the main imperial house was quite high, Emperor Komei, the father of Emperor Meiji, adopted Prince Kotohito.
Prince Kotohito succeeded as head of the Kan'in-no-miya, the newest of the four shinnōke, upon the death of the fifth head, Prince Naruhito, in January 1872. On 19 December 1891, he married Sanjo Chieko (30 January 1872 - 19 March 1947), a daughter of Prince Sanjo Santetomi [peer]. The couple had six children: five daughters and one son.
Prince Kotohito entered the Military Academy in 1877 and graduated in 1881. Emperor Meiji sent him to France in 1882 to study military tactics and technology. He was a veteran of the First Sino-Japanese War (1894) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05). The Prince rose to the rank of lieutenant general in 1905 and became the commander of the Imperial Guard Division in 1906. He rose to the rank of full general and became a Supreme War Councilor in 1912. He became the youngest field marshal in the Japanese Imperial Army in 1919. In 1921, he accompanied then-Crown Prince Hirohito on his tour of Europe. Field Marshal Prince Kan'in Kotohito became chief of the Army General Staff on 1 December 1931, replacing General Kanaya Hanzo.
He supported State Shintoism. With Kiichiro Hiranuma he set up the "Shintoist Rites Research Council" to research all ancient Shinto rites and practices. Other associates were Kuniaki Koiso, who restored the ancient sacred rites in the Sukumo river, the "Preliminary Misogi Rite",Heisuke Yanagawa, who directed the Government Imperial Aid Association and Chikao Fujisawa, member of the Diet of Japan, who proposed a law that Shinto should be reaffirmed as state religion, as in past times.
Prince Kan'in, among others within the army, opposed Prime Minister Yonai Mitsumasa's efforts to improve relations with the United States and the United Kingdom. He forced the resignation of General Hata Shunroku (1879-1962), the minister of war, thus bringing down the Yonai cabinet in July 1940. Prince Kan'in was a participant in the Liaison Conferences between the military chiefs of staff and the second cabinet of Prince Konoe Fumimaro (June 1940 - July 1941). Both he and Lieutenant General Tojo Hideki, the newly appointed minister of war, supported the conclusion of a Tripartite Pact among Japan, Nazi Germany, and Fascist Italy. The Prince retired as chief of the General Staff on 3 October 1940 and was succeeded by Sugiyama Hajime. He remained a member of the Supreme War Council and a senior advisor to the emperor on army matters. Field Marshal Prince Kan'in died in Tokyo on 21 May 1945. His only son, Prince Haruhito, succeeded him as the seventh and last head of the Kan'in no miya.
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