PC & WI: Prince Yorihito and Princess Kaiulani Marry

Rush Tarquin

Gone Fishin'
King Kalakaua of Hawaii once traveled to Japan and proposed a marriage between Princess Kaiulani and Prince Yorihito of the Fushimi-no-miya branch of the Imperial family in the hopes of creating an alliance between Japan and Hawaii. The often cited reason is that Prince Yorihito was already engaged to Iwakura Kaneko, who was the daughter of a Fukuoka area daimyo who was supportive of Meiji. They married in 1898, had no children, and the Fushimi branch died out.

If Yorihito hadn't been engaged, do you think there's anyway the proposal might have been accepted?

What if Hawaii's situation had been more stable and independent of the United States? (An academic question since it would need a POD possibly reaching back to the 1850s, which would destroy the specifics of the proposal, but I'm still interested to know people's opinions.)

Emperor Meiji had one son who was very sickly after he was born. There was also an assassination attempt on Emperor Meiji. Basically it doesn't seem like it would take much to see the mainline of the Imperial family die out and see the ascendency of the Fushimi branch in its place. If the Fushimi branch had ascended, would Kalakaua's proposal be more likely to be accepted due to the need to produce an heir, or less likely due to an expectation to keep the mainline of the Imperial family purely Japanese (I don't know what Japanese racial attitudes were like at the time)?

Finally, provided you think the marriage is possible, what do you think would be the consequences for Japan and Hawaii if Yorihito and Kaiulani had married either before or after the ascendency of the Fushimi branch to the Imperial throne?
 
King Kalakaua of Hawaii once traveled to Japan and proposed a marriage between Princess Kaiulani and Prince Yorihito of the Fushimi-no-miya branch of the Imperial family in the hopes of creating an alliance between Japan and Hawaii. The often cited reason is that Prince Yorihito was already engaged to Iwakura Kaneko, who was the daughter of a Fukuoka area daimyo who was supportive of Meiji. They married in 1898, had no children, and the Fushimi branch died out.

If Yorihito hadn't been engaged, do you think there's anyway the proposal might have been accepted?

What if Hawaii's situation had been more stable and independent of the United States? (An academic question since it would need a POD possibly reaching back to the 1850s, which would destroy the specifics of the proposal, but I'm still interested to know people's opinions.)

Emperor Meiji had one son who was very sickly after he was born. There was also an assassination attempt on Emperor Meiji. Basically it doesn't seem like it would take much to see the mainline of the Imperial family die out and see the ascendency of the Fushimi branch in its place. If the Fushimi branch had ascended, would Kalakaua's proposal be more likely to be accepted due to the need to produce an heir, or less likely due to an expectation to keep the mainline of the Imperial family purely Japanese (I don't know what Japanese racial attitudes were like at the time)?

Finally, provided you think the marriage is possible, what do you think would be the consequences for Japan and Hawaii if Yorihito and Kaiulani had married either before or after the ascendency of the Fushimi branch to the Imperial throne?

Just looking around on Wikipedia, it seems that the Fushimi collateral branch is really, really, really, really distantly related from the male line of the imperial family. As in, they split from the mainline roughly 600 years ago, being descended from Prince Sadatsune (l. 1425-1474), brother of Emperor Go-Hanazono (l. 1419-1470). Given how the line is so distant, wouldn't it make sense to go for a more closer relation?

So, if Emperor Meiji and Prince Yoshihito die sometime in 1882, after Yorihito marries into the Hawaiian royal family, there are other relatives, like Yorihito's brothers who didn't marry non-Japanese. I would point out that the Arisugawa cadet line diverges from the mainline "only" in the 18th century, being descended from another Prince Yorihito (l. 1713-1769), brother of Emperor Higashiyama (l. 1675-1710). The Prince Arisugawa Takehito (l. 1862-1913) would still be around even if both the Emperor Meiji and the Prince Yoshihito die. Historically, it appears that Takehito's son died early and the family would die out again. But still, in the 1800s, there's still the possibility of alternate scenarios.

I don't know if I have any technical objections, but I just find it shocking to enthrone such a distant relative, for any throne. It'd be like the House of Windsor dying out, so a Lancastrian is installed as King for the UK.
 
If I remember right, the consorts Japanese Emperors were almost always members of the Fujiwara family or other members of the Japanese imperial family, so I definitely don't think Japan would break with tradition after Prince Yorihito ascends to the throne. It seems that this situation is only possible if Yorihito marries first and then becomes Emperor.
 
...would Kalakaua's proposal be more likely to be accepted due to the need to produce an heir, or less likely due to an expectation to keep the mainline of the Imperial family purely Japanese (I don't know what Japanese racial attitudes were like at the time)?


OT1H - I don't think Japanese have the sort of racial purity feather up the ass that some whites had. Lafcadio Hearn married a Japanese woman, and reportedly her father was tickled pink when they produced a grandson for for him.

OTOH - I don't think any member of the Imperial House has ever married a non-Japanese, at least as far back as the start of the Tokugawa isolation. The Imperial line was confined to a small group of very prestigious noble families of collateral descent.

One must remember that the Emperor was not just the head of state, but a quasi-divine incarnation of the Japanese nation. This was especially true doring the Meiji period, when the Emperor cult was being promoted.

So... I don't think the marriage could have gone through. And it would be impossible for a scion of such a marriage to succeed to the throne.
 
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