Prince Kitashirakawa Naruhisa

Prince Kitashirakawa Naruhisa (北白川宮成久王), was the 3rd head of a collateral branch of the Japanese Imperial Family.

Early life
Prince Kitashirakawa Naruhisa was the son of Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa and Princess Tomiko. Prince Naruhisa succeeded as head of the house of Kitashirakawa-no-miya after the death of his father in November 1895 during the First Sino-Japanese War. He was the brother of Prince Takeda Tsunehisa and classmate of Prince Asaka Yasuhiko, Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko and Prince Konoe Fumimaro (peer). Prince Naruhisa graduated from the 20th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy with a commission as a sub-lieutenant in 1904, and the 27th class of the Army Staff College with the rank of colonel. His field of study as artillery.

Marriage & family
On April 29, 1909, Prince Kitashirakawa married Princess Kane-no-Miya Fusako (1890–1974), the seventh daughter of Emperor Meiji. Prince and Princess Kitashirakawa Naruhisa had one son and three daughters:
 * 1) Prince Kitashirakawa Nagahisa (北白川宮永久王)
 * 2) Princess Kitashirakawa Mineko (美年子女王); Married Viscount Tachibana Tanekatsu
 * 3) Princess Kitashirakawa Sawako (佐和子女王); Married Viscount Higashizono Motofumi
 * 4) Princess Kitashirakawa Taeko (多惠子女王); Married Tokugawa Yoshihisa.

Later life
Between 1920 and 1923, Prince Naruhisa studied military tactics at the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr in France, along with his cousins Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko and Prince Asaka Yasuhiko. However, on April 1, 1923, he was killed in automobile accident in a Paris suburb that seriously injured Princess Kitashirakawa (who had accompanied her husband to Paris), and which left Prince Asaka with a limp for the rest of his life.

Dowager Princess Kitashirakawa Fusako became a commoner on October 14, 1947, with the abolition of the collateral branches of the Japanese Imperial Family by the American occupation authorities. The former princess served as custodian and chief priestess of the Ise Shrine until her death on August 11, 1974.