Tokudaiji Sanetsune

Sanetsune Tokudaiji

Prince Sanetsune Tokudaiji GCMG (徳大寺実則, 10 January 1840 – 4 June 1919) was a Japanese statesman and Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan in the Meiji period.

Tokydaiji Sanetsune was born to a branch of the Fujiwara court nobility in Kyoto. His father was Tokudaiji Kinito, and his brother was Saionji Kinmochi, later Prime Minister of Japan.

Joining the Sonnō jōi ("Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarian”) faction in Court against westernization and the Tokugawa shogunate, he was forced to flee Kyoto during the coup d’etat by the moderate samurai of the Aizu and Satsuma domains on 18 August 1863. He returned after the Meiji Restoration and served in a number of posts in the new government. He became a Dainagon in 1869.

In 1884, he was given the title of koshaku (marquis) under the new kazoku nobility rankings, and was subsequently elevated to koshaku (prince). In 1891 he became Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan a post he held until Emperor Meiji's death. He felt very strongly that the Emperor should not involve himself in politics or in the decision-making process of government.