The Shijo Family (四条家)
The Shijo family belonged to the court nobility and had a family status of Urin. FUJIWARA no Uona-ryu of the Northern House of the Fujiwara clan. The family business was ryori hocho-do (cooking and knives) and the Shinto flute. The family crest was water clover. The hereditary stipend in the Edo period was 180 koku. The family was awarded the title of marquess after the Meiji restoration. It is known as the family of so-called Shijo-ryu hocho-do (Shijo-ryu cuisine). The Yamashina family, the Washinoo/Washio family, the Nishioji family, the Aburanokoji family, and the Kushige family are branch families of the Shijo family.
The lineage of the eldest son of Zenshoji-ryu (the Zenshoji line) descended from FUJIWARA no Uona, sadaijin (minister of the left), himself the son of FUJIWARA no Fusasaki. Takasue SHIJO, the 13th generation of Uona, took the name Shijo at the end of the Heian period. Takafusa SHIJO, the son of Takasue, was promoted to Junior Chief of the Councilor of State, shonii (Senior Second Rank), at the beginning of the Kamakura period, and established the family status of Kugyo (which means "court nobility"). In the period of the Northern and Southern Courts, the family produced Takasue SHIJO, who was active as a courtier of the Southern Court.
From the end of Edo period to the Meiji Restoration, Takauta SHIJO was actively involved in affairs of state as a court noble belonging to the group which revered the Emperor and desired the expulsion of foreigners/overthrow of the Tokugawa Shogunate; he suffered in incident of the shichikyo-ochi (defeated seven nobles) with Sanetomi SANJO, but after the Meiji Restoration he was rehabilitated, joining the army and reaching the rank of lieutenant general. The family received the title of marquess on July 7, 1884.
Takachika SHIJO, Takauta's son, also joined the army and became a lieutenant commander in the cavalry. Takanori SHIJO, the son of Takachika, died in 1977, but the direct Shijo line is still good health, as shown in a recent Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) documentary featuring the family. It is rare for a direct line of the Fujiwara clan to be maintained to the present day, and the family attends a formal banquet held the day before the Emperor's birthday every year.
In the branch family of Baron Shijo, there is woman who inherited the Shijo-ryu hocho-do (Shijo-ryu cuisine).
Currently, the son and the heir of the direct line is Takakazu SHIJO, the 42nd generation of the family, born in 1977.