Tokugawa, Iemasa

Tokugawa Iemasa was born in the Japanese capital Tokyo . The eldest son of the 16th head of the Tokugawa clan, Prince Tokugawa Iesato (1863-1940).

In 1909, Tokugawa Iemasa graduated from the Imperial University of Tokyo Law School and in the same year received a post in the diplomatic corps of the Japanese Foreign Ministry . In 1924 he was appointed Consul General in Sydney ( Australia ). In 1929-1936 - the ambassador of Japan in Canada , in 1937-1939 - the ambassador of Japan in Turkey .

In 1940, after the death of his father, Tokugawa Iemasa inherited the princely title (徳 川 公, jamb) and became a member of the House of Peers of the Japanese Parliament. In June 1946, he was elected the last chairman of the House of Peers. In May 1947, after the adoption of the new Japanese constitution, the chamber of peers was liquidated, and Tokugawa Iemasa lost the post of chairman of the higher chamber.

On February 18, 1963, 78-year-old Tokugawa Iemasa died in his home in Shibuya , Tokyo . He was posthumously awarded the Order of the Rising Sun , Class 1. He was buried in the Yanaka cemetery in Tokyo .

After the death of Tokugawa Iemasa, the 18th head of the Tokugawa clan became his grandson Tokugawa Tsunenari (born 1940).

• Banno, Junji . The Establishment of the Japanese Constitutional System. Routledge - 1992. - ISBN 0-415-00497-7 .
• Lebra, Sugiyama Takie . Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility. - University of California Press, 1995. - ISBN 0-520-07602-8 .