Background
Michitaka Kujo was born on June 11, 1839 in Japan. He was the son of regent Nijo Hisatada.
Michitaka Kujo was born on June 11, 1839 in Japan. He was the son of regent Nijo Hisatada.
Michitaka Kujo was an official attached to the Imperial Household. In 1862, Michitaka Kujo was adopted Gondainagon (vice-minister), then Udaijin (Minister of Right) and subsequently Commander-in-Chief of Imperial Guards. After the Meiji Restoration (1868) he was sent as Commander-in-Chief of the punitive expedition to Ou (northeast Japan).
In the bakumatsu period, Michitaka Kujo supported the Shogunate policy as one of highest courtier of the imperial court and hence lost the power at the very beginning of Meiji restoration when the annihilation of the Shogunate was announced on 1868. His right to show at the imperial court was halted. Soon later in the same year he was rehabilitated and appointed of the clan master of Fujiwara clan.
During the Boshin War, he had nominal leadership of the imperial army's Northern Pacification Command, and spent the latter part of the war in northern Japan.
Michitaka Kujo was elevated to princedom in 1869 as the family head of Kujo family, when the Meiji government found Kazoku peerage system.
Kujo Michitaka adopted son of his brother Yukinori. One of his daughters, Sadako married Emperor Taisho.