Yoshihito, Prince Katsura

Yoshihito, Prince Katsura, was born in Tokyo on 11 February 1948 and died on 8 June 2014. He was the second son of Takahito, Prince Mikasa and Yuriko, Princess Mikasa, and a first cousin of Emperor Akihito. He studied at the Australian National University, which strikes me as notable for a member of the Imperial House of his generation — a stretch of years spent in a country where nobody's daily life was organized around his family. He received the Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum in 1968 and Italy's Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit in 1982. Writing about royalty is different from writing about anyone else in this database. Everyone else here chose something: a sport, a studio, a party. He was assigned a role at birth and the only real question available to him was how to carry it. He carried it for sixty-six years, largely out of the spotlight. I do not think outsiders can fairly judge such a life, but the quiet steadiness of it deserves respect.

Name (English)

Yoshihito, Prince Katsura

Name (Japanese)

桂宮宜仁親王

Reading

かつらのみや よしひとしんのう

Born

February 11, 1948 – June 8, 2014

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aquarius / Rat

Origin

Tokyo, Japan

Occupation

aristocrat

University

Australian National University

Awards & achievements

• 1968 Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum
• 1982 Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshihito%2C%20Prince%20Katsura
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A1%82%E5%AE%AE%E5%AE%9C%E4%BB%81%E8%A6%AA%E7%8E%8B
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1736803

Tags

• Tokyo
• aristocrat

Last updated

2026-08-07

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.