Tenkahiko
| Tenkahiko | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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 The Grand King during a shrine visit in Wanshu, 2016 | |||||
| 16th Taiwō of the Shun dynasty | |||||
| Tenure | 4th March 1989 - present | ||||
| Coronation | 24th March 1989 | ||||
| Predecessor | Grand Queen Isō | ||||
| Born | 14 June 1942 White Palace, Eito | ||||
| Consorts | Princess Kosane Princess Chikage | ||||
| Issue | Prince Kenshin Prince Akihiko Princess Hinata Princess Hayahime Prince Hakashi | ||||
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| House | Royal House of Chisei | ||||
| Father | Prince Heigo | ||||
| Mother | Grand Queen Teibo | ||||
| Religion | Jindo, Siddhism | ||||
Tenkahiko (Chiseian Yashiman: 天夏彦; born 14 June 1942) is the current Grand King of Chisei. He is the 16th Grand King of the Shun dynasty. His era name is Tenyō (天栄), meaning 'heavenly glory'; the Royal Council explained it's choice as intending to strike a hopeful tone following the troubled period faced by the monarchy under his older sister and predecessor Grand Queen Isō.
Tenkahiko was born in Eito in 1942, the height of the Escar-Varunan War, as the second child of Grand Queen Teibo and Prince Heigo. He was educated privately, rarely leaving the grounds of the Royal City during the first decade or so of his life. He married in 1959 to Tamon Kosane, a commoner of Hinoan descent, a move which sparked controversy at the time. The pair would have five children: Prince Yosuke, Prince Hakashi, Princess Hayahime, Prince Kenshin and Prince Akihiko.
Grand Queen Teibo died in 1962 and was succeeded by Crown Princess Suzuhime, from which time Tenkahiko became heir presumptive. After it became public knowledge that the new Grand Queen was infertile and he would be expected to take the throne, he took Princess Chikage as a second wife with whom he had another child, Princess Hinata. Hinata however would commit suicide in 1996, a few years after the birth of her own child, Crown Princess Utahime.
He finally succeeded to the throne upon the death of his older sister on the 4th of March, 1989 and was formally crowned on the 24th of the same month. Since his coronation he has presided over a renaissance of the Chiseian monarchy and it's role in the Kingdom's diplomatic initiatives, with significant events including his coronation and his state visit to Achtotlan in 1991.
At 80 Tenkahiko is the second oldest reigning monarch in Chiseian history, after Grand King Tenantei who died in 1890 at the age of 96.
Biography
Early life
Tenkahiko was born at 03:20 (CST) on 14 June 1942, at the height of the Second Escar-Varunan War. He was the third child of Grand Queen Teibo, after elder sister Suzuhime (later Grand Queen Isō) and elder brother Prince Nobuhiko. He was delivered by Caesarean section in the underground shelter of the White Palace; the birth was subject due to numerous complications, on account of stress on the Grand Queen's part and ongoing Yamataian air raids over Eito. His youth name was Kazutora (寿虎), though he was often playfully called Toramaru (虎丸) or 'Little Tiger' by family. His birth was publicly announced in a nationwide radio broadcast on the 15 June, coinciding with the release of photos published in the Eito press.
The young prince was immediately popular, and became a national symbol. Gima Maho, the Tairō of the Conciliar Government, called the boy 'our angel of victory', and greatly increased the frequency of her public appearances with the Royal Family after his birth. The Royal Family in turn attempted to seperate the Grand Queen's children from the propaganda machinery of the military government. For the first decade of his life, the Prince and his siblings were almost entirely confined to the limits of the White Palace, with only a few carefully-managed excursions into the Royal City for special occasions, such as the 1945 Eito Victory Parade. It would not be until 1952 that the Grand Queen's children would begin to participate more fully in public royal duties.
Schooling & public life
The Prince's early education was led by Palace Governess Sawa Etsume, alongside numerous other private Palace tutors, who taught the boy Saramosiri, Chanhanese, Standard Yashiman, Hyspanic and Zusian, alongside reading in Kwabun and Classical Yashiman. He made his first public radio address in 1947, announcing the opening of the Royal Childrens Foundation for Reconstruction, a national charity fund for war orphans and displaced children.
The boy impressed dignitaries from Zusea at a Royal ball in 1953, shortly before he came of age and was granted his formal title and royal name - Tenkahiko (天夏彦). The Zusian ambassador described him as "a wonderfully quick-witted little fellow; unerringly polite but strong-willed, a mirror image of his mother." He enrolled at the Gakujūwen in 1956 - a late enrollee, on account of his confinement to the Palace. Later in life, Tenkahiko said of his time in the academy: "It was a most miserable and dreary place, and I was rather lonely." He was considered to be an unremarkable pupil by the standards of the academy, though he performed admirably in equestrianism and the arts. He met Tamon Kosane, a commoner from a wealthy Hino-Shirakawan family, in his final year, and the pair began a secret relationship in December of 1957, which was eventually uncovered by his older sister, resulting in a period of tension between the Prince and his family.
Prince Heigo, his father, passed in January 1958, mostly eclipsing the relationship issue and somewhat traumatising the boy. He graduated from the Gakujūwen with somewhat poor grades, which school officials attributed to his grieving, but despite this successfully tested into the Inaopira School of Art, pursuing architecture. His relationship with Tamon was revealed to the press in 1959, causing a minor scandal on account of Tamon's ancestry, but he was defended by the Grand Queen and his siblings. The pair were married that same year, and in 1960 had their first child, the later Prince Kenshin.
Heir Presumptive
The birth of the couple's second son, Prince Akihiko, in 1961 was overshadowed by the death of Prince Nobuhiko in a car crash, and not long thereafter by the death of the Grand Queen in 1962. The sudden loss of his mother and elder brother reportedly sent Prince Tenkahiko into a 'multiple year depression', and he largely withdrew from public appearances from 1962 until 1965. This caused some discontent among the Chiseian public, as his elder sister Suzuhime, now the Grand Queen, was married but childless. The press speculated on the 'recluse prince' and his 'Seimin wife', with many commentators openly speculating on the future of the monarchy in the event of the new Grand Queen's eventual death.
In 1965, news broke that Grand Queen Suzuhime was in fact infertile and unable to bear children, leading to the Tenhei Succession Crisis. Facing heavy pressure and public scrutiny, Tenkahiko agreed to take Fushizono Chikage as a second wife, and the pair were married in 1966. One year later they would have their first and only child together, Princess Hinata, putting an end to the panic over succession for a time. The marriage was one of entirely political nature; Chikage and Tenkahiko rarely spent much time together outside of major formal occasions, though they were on friendly terms - after 1970 Chikage was gifted the Royal House at Shusugayama as her personal residence. The pair finally divorced in 1978.
Tenkahiko would go on to have two more children by his first wife - Princess Hayahime in 1969 and Prince Hakashi in 1971. From 1970 onwards, he began to take an increasingly active role in public affairs, as the Grand Queen suffered from bouts of ill health. In the Queen's stead, he attended the Handover of Hinomoto in 1974, the opening of the Tricentennial Pavillion in 1975, and various public military events in support of the Kuijuan War from 1977 to 1980. In 1983, after the public reveal of the Grand Queen's diagnosis of terminal cervical cancer, he was formally made Crown Prince and Regent of Chisei, taking over his sister's ceremonial and civil authority.
As Regent, Tenkahiko oversaw the turbulent but prosperous final years of his sister's reign. In 1985, the 1985 Eito Royal Airport Incident saw 21 civilian hostages killed by terrorists after a failed rescue mission by Chiseian special forces; the Royal Family and the Crown Prince led efforts in the aftermath of the incident to secure compensation for victims and their families, and put pressure on lawmakers to address the systemic issues that led to the rescue missions failure. In 1986, Atsukur was appointed by the Regent as Chisei's first Saramosiri Chancellor. In 1987 Prince Tenkahiko played a notable role in the response to the Man'en Riots, calming violent demonstrators outside the Royal City with a public address against the advice of his counselors.
Reign
Accession and coronation
By 1987, the Grand Queen's condition had greatly declined, and she had ceased almost all public appearances, leading to rampant speculation and conspiracy theories that she had already died and her death had been covered up. Abdication had been considered, as by this point the Crown Prince had already become monarch in all but name, but the Atsukur Chancellery was reluctant, as it would have required a Constitutional Amendment. While Tenkahiko toured Zusea and Redon alongside the Zusian Basilikar in 1988 his private secretary, Hō Moriichi, carried a draft accession declaration in case the Grand Queen died while he was on tour.
In late February 1989 Tenkahiko and Kosane set out for a Royal Tour of Meridon; they had only just reached their residence at the Grand Imperial Hotel in Cordelia on 4 March when they recieved the news that the Grand Queen had passed away in the early hours of the morning. The accession was publicly declared on the 5 March 1989, with a 2-week long national period of mourning coming into effect while the Royal couple took an emergency flight back home.
The late Grand Queen was posthumously named Isō, and her funeral took place on 14 March 1989. It was a modest ceremony, with only family and a few foreign dignitaries in attendance, but crowds still lined the streets to watch the funeral procession between the Royal City in Eito and the Royal Tomb in Kamuyama.
The coronation had been prepared for extensively before the Grand Queen's death, and it took place on 24 March 1989. The event was widely televised and hundreds were invited to the ceremony, including foreign royalty, ambassadors and heads of state & government. After the ceremony, the Grand King made a speech before the Grand Assembly. In 1989, the Grand King and Princess Kosane conducted a world tour, visiting over 13 different countries and Chiseian dependencies, and covering over 30,000 km by land, sea and air.
New era
Despite requests from those officials who viewed it as a poor omen, Tenkahiko did not implement a new nengō immediately after his coronation, instead maintaining the existing Man'en era for its intended duration until 1995 (the quadricentenary of the Shun dynasty). In 1993, he announced that the new era would be named Tenyō (天栄), meaning 'heavenly glory'. The new era came into effect on Chiseian New Year, 31 January 1995.
Titles, Styles & Honours
Titles & Styles
The King's list of titles as depicted on the Royal Seal of Chisei is as follows:
Honours
Domestic Honours
Foreign Honours
Royal Knight of the Royal Order of the Polar Star
