Forget Empress, Let's Have Concubines, Says Prince (Japan)

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 11-4-2005 | Colin Joyce

[blam]

[Enterprise]

"Even more controversially, the prince suggested male members of the royal family could once again take concubines to ensure a supply of sons."

Uh, ok. And if that is extended to other males, the population numbers might pick up a bit.

[gaijin]

How long until Masako-sama goes COMPLETELY NUTS?

Takers?

[saquin]

The prince outlined ways to preserve male succession by bringing distant cousins of the emperor back into the line of succession either by adoption or the creation of new royal houses.

And that convoluted solution would be better at preserving the royal "line" than allowing females would be?

[muawiyah]

As obscure as this might seem, you have to remember that absent a male in the line these guys would have to back up to find a line that had a continual male line down to the present day.

Odds are the current claimant under those conditions is a fellow who was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN.

[Mount Athos]

Looking at the chart, if princess sayako had a son wouldn't he be eligible, time to be fruitful and multiply

[Shermy]

Judging by his picture I'd guess Tomohito is the wild card of the bunch.

[July 4th]

And Katsura's got one mean lookin' brow.

[aspidistra]

A blue state, right?

[muawiyah]

Sure, MN tends to "blueness", but this guy's family recalls having been tossed into concentration camps by the Democrats so they generally don't favor Democrats for public office.

Had to do with Fort Snelling and the Army Intelligence School during WWII ~ they were relocated from the camps to just East of the Mississippi.

[festus]

And that convoluted solution would be better at preserving the royal "line" than allowing females would be?

Because it keeps it male.

[Verginius Rufus]

The French had the same rule when they were ruled by kings--the descent had to be entirely in the male line. When Charles X was forced to abdicate in 1830, and they didn't want to hand the throne to his young grandson, they went to the nearest cousin who went back entirely in the male line, and he became King Louis Philippe. (He was descended from the brother of Louis XIV.)

Shakespeare has a passage in Henry the Fifth, Act I, Scene II, where this rule is discussed:

"In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant,"
"No woman shall succeed in Salique land"

[saquin]

Because it keeps it male.

Obviously. I realize that. I'm questioning the whole idea because if gender trumps bloodline (a distant male cousin, adopted into the line, is preferred over a direct female descendant) than why bother with a royal bloodline at all?

[muawiyah]

I think they have to go back about 1200 years unless somebody has a boy real soon.

Whole big bunches of the royal lines ran out in the 1800s. I've looked through the primary genealogies, and it looks like they were all hit particularly hard by tuberculosis.

[LauraleeBraswell]

Japan is very sexist. Women are expected to quit for work after marriage. Their jobs become solely taking care of their husbands and their family.

[Whitewasher]

Concubines would fit in perfectly to the social climate. In fact, I thought it was the accepted norm the world over? Silly Prince.

[Verginius Rufus]

I'm not sure if you are referring to Japan or France. The French royal family had a lot of members who died young, and tuberculosis seems to have been a major reason. There may be descendants of Louis Philippe around (I think Charles X's grandson, who would have become Henry V if they had restored the monarchy after the fall of Napoleon III, died childless).

King Juan Carlos of Spain is also descended from Louis XIV but perhaps his ancestor renounced any rights to the throne of France for his descendants, when he became Philip V of Spain in 1700.

[festus]

Japan is very sexist. Women are expected to quit for work after marriage. Their jobs become solely taking care of their husbands and their family.

You've done it. You've finally found the one part of Japanese culture that is better than the west ! ;-)