Kishu Tokugawa clan

• Japanese: 紀州徳川家 (Kishuu Tokugawa ke)

The Tokugawa of Kii province were one of the Gosanke, the three branch families of Tokugawa Ieyasu's own lineage, and the highest ranking samurai families below that Tokugawa main line. Based at the 550,000 koku domain of Wakayama in Kii province, the Kishû Tokugawa were descended from Ieyasu's 10th son Tokugawa Yorinobu. The eighth shogun, Tokugawa Yoshimune, and the 14th shogun Tokugawa Iemochi, were both heads of the Kishû family and lords of Wakayama before becoming shogun.

The clan maintained two mansions in Edo: one at Kôjimachi (in an area now known as Kioi-chô) and one at Akasaka. The former mansion served as the temporary imperial palace from 1873 to 1889, and later became the site of a mansion for Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa and then in 1930 for the former royal family of Joseon. The Akasaka Detached Palace was constructed on the site of the latter mansion.

References

• Arai Hakuseki, Joyce Ackroyd (trans.), Told Round a Brushwood Fire, University of Tokyo Press (1979), 286n120.
• Plaques at former site of Kishû Tokugawa mansion in Edo (Tokyo).[1]