Tokudaiji family

This family split off from the Sanjo family, which descended from the Kan'in line of the northern branch of the Fujiwara clan. Its family status was Seigake. It began with Tokudaiji Saneyoshi, the son of Sanjo Kinzane, the Gon Dainagon (provisional councilor) at the end of the Heian period. The family name was derived from Tokudaiji Temple, which Saneyoshi built in Kinugasa, Kyoto. For several generations before Saneyoshi, women from the Sanjo family entered the imperial harems of successive emperors and became the birth mothers of the Shirakawa, Toba, and Goshirakawa emperors. As the Shirakawa, Toba, and Goshirakawa emperors ruled as cloistered emperors, the children of this family came to hold real power in the imperial court. During Kinzane's reign, the Saionji family, whose founder was Michisue, and the Tokudaiji family of Saneyoshi split off from the main Sanjo family. Both of these families were ranked second only to the Sekke. Famous people from that time who were particularly active from the end of the Heian period to the early Kamakura period include Tokudaiji Sanesada, who was later known as Gotokudaiji (later known as the Left Minister), Tokudaiji Sanemoto (1201-1273), who became the family's first Grand Minister of State in the mid-Kamakura period, and Tokudaiji Sanetsune (1839-1919), who served as the Grand Chamberlain to Emperor Meiji.

[Yusuke Yoneda]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

藤原氏北家閑院流(ほっけかんいんりゅう)の系統を引く三条家より分立した家。家格は清華家(せいがけ)。平安時代末の権大納言三条公実(きんざね)の子徳大寺実能(さねよし)に始まる。家号は実能が京都衣笠(きぬがさ)に建立した徳大寺にちなむ。実能の数代前から、三条家の女子が歴代の後宮(こうきゅう)に入り、白河・鳥羽・後白河の各天皇の生母となった。白河・鳥羽・後白河の各天皇が院政を敷いたことから、同家出身の子弟は宮廷内で実権を握るようになった。公実の代に、本家の三条家から通季(みちすえ)を始祖とする西園寺(さいおんじ)家と実能の徳大寺家が分立。いずれも摂家に次ぐ家格となる。当時の出身で、とくに平安時代末期から鎌倉時代初期に活躍し、後徳大寺(のちのとくだいじ)左大臣とよばれた徳大寺実定(さねさだ)や、鎌倉時代中期に当家初めての太政大臣になった徳大寺実基(さねもと)（1201―1273）、明治天皇の侍従長を務めた徳大寺実則(さねつね)（1839―1919）らは有名である。

［米田雄介］

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