Higashisono Motoyuki (東園基敬)
Motoyuki HIGASHISONO (November 28, 1820 – May 24, 1883) was a Court noble who lived during the end of the Edo period to the Meiji period. He served as Konoefu-Jusanmi (a government official at the Headquarters of the Inner Palace Guards at the Junior Third Rank). He was one of the Sangi (Royal Advisors). He was one of the members of the Demo of eighty-eight retainers of Imperial Court. His father was Motosada HIGASHISONO. His mother was a daughter of Kunitoyo SHIBAYAMA. One of his daughters was a wife of Tadasuke MINASE named Tomiko. Tomiko's daughter was Imperial Princess Shizuko, a wife of Prince Kuninomiya Taka.
Brief Personal History
He was born to Motosada HIGASHISONO in1820. In 1822, he conferred a peerage. He had a coming of age ceremony in 1827. He was promoted then on, and became Konoefu (a government official at the Headquarters of the Inner Palace Guards) in 1851. He accompanied Emperor Komei during an imperial visit in 1855, and lead one toneri (palace servant), two zuijin (guard), one Kodoneri Warawa (juvenile people who served Court nobles and samurai families), and two Zoshiki (low-level functionary). In 1858, he took part in the Demo of eighty-eight retainers of Imperial Court with IWAKURA and so on, and went to the Imperial Court to object to an Imperial sanction to the Treaty of amity and commerce between the United States and Japan. He gained support from Emperor Komei, and blocked the government's plan on the Imperial sanction for the treaty. However, this caused him to be implicated in Ansei no Taigoku, which was a large-scale suppression of opponents invoked in the same year by Naosuke II. Later on, Meiji restoration was achieved, and by 1868, he became Jusanmi-Sangi (Royal Advisors at the Junior Third Rank) (He was 49 years old at the time). Furthermore, he became a Sanyo (Councilor) in the new government. In 1883, he died at the age of 64.
His son, Motonaru HIGASHISONO, succeeded the Higashisono family, and Motonaru was given a rank of Viscount.