Nakayama Yoshiko

Nakayama Yoshiko (中山慶子) was a Japanese lady-in-waiting in the court of the Imperial House of Japan. She was a favourite concubine of Emperor Kōmei and the mother of Emperor Meiji.

Parents
Nakayama Yoshiko was the daughter of Lord Nakayama Tadayasu, Minister of the Left (Sadaijin) and a member of the Fujiwara clan. Her mother was Matsura Aiko (1818–1906), the 11th daughter of the daimyō of the Hirado domain, Matsura Seizan.

At the court
She was born in Kyoto and entered service of the court at the age of 16. She became a concubine of Kōmei, who was also her third cousin once removed, and on 3 November 1852, gave birth to her only offspring Mutsuhito, later known as Emperor Meiji, at her father’s residence outside of the Kyoto Imperial Palace. She returned with her son to the Palace five years later. Her son was the only child born to Emperor Kōmei surviving to adulthood.

After the Meiji Restoration, she relocated to the new capital to Tokyo City in 1870 at the behest of her son the Emperor. She is buried in Toshimagaoka cemetery in Bunkyō, Tokyo.

Honours

 * Grand Cordon of the Order of the Precious Crown (17 January 1900)

Order of precedence

 * Third rank (Fourth day, eighth month of Keio (1868))
 * Second rank (Seventh day, ninth month of Keio (1868))
 * Senior second rank (1889)
 * First rank (15 January 1900)