Kumiko Ide

Kumiko Ide (born September 23, 1922, died July 1, 2018) was a Japanese writer and the granddaughter of Tokugawa Yoshikatsu, the last shogun of the Edo Shogunate. She was born in Kasuga, Bunkyō Ward, Tokyo (formerly Koishikawa, Shitaya District, Tokyo Prefecture, Tokyo City).

Her biography is as follows: She was born as the fourth daughter of Tokugawa Yoshihisa, the seventh son of Tokugawa Yoshikatsu. Because she was born nine years after Yoshikatsu's death, she had no direct contact with him. During her childhood, she spent her days at a 3,400-square-meter residence where Yoshikatsu had spent his later years, and her home was known as "Dairokuten" after its location. About 50 people lived in the residence. She attended the Girls' Gakushūin School, commuting by streetcar, and enjoyed tennis, horseback riding, and tree climbing.

In 1941, at the age of 19, she married the eldest son of the Matsudaira family, related to the Tokugawa, Marquis Yasuaki Matsudaira (known as Yasuaki Yasu). In 1943, her eldest daughter, Tokuko, was born, but the following year, her husband Yasuaki was sent to Palau in the South Seas. During the outbreak of the Pacific War and the intensification of air raids over the mainland, she evacuated to Hachiōji. During her time there, while living as a member of the Kazoku (nobility), she led a self-sufficient life.

The year after the end of the war, her husband Yasuaki was reported to have been killed in action. After the war, she remarried Jiro Ide, a former naval medical officer and close friend of Yasuaki, and began living at the Ide family home in Mejiro. She lived alongside about 20 family members and relatives lost during the war. She opened a clinic in Yokohama that she owned; although she was not a trained nurse, she helped at her husband's hospital.

Later, she moved into public housing managed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and eventually relocated to an apartment complex in Chiba Prefecture. In her later years, despite deteriorating health, she completed the writing of her neglected manuscript and published her autobiographical work, *The Talented Princess of Tokugawa* on June 13, 2018. Her debut as a writer at age 95 garnered attention, but shortly afterward, her health worsened, and she died of old age at her home in Chiba Prefecture on July 1, 2018.

Regarding her personality, even after she began writing her autobiography, she maintained a reverence for her grandfather Tokugawa Yoshikatsu. At her home in Chiba, she displayed photographs of Yoshikatsu and the Tokugawa family crest, the Aoi mon. She was also known to watch DVDs of *Onihei Hankachō*.

Her published works include *The Talented Princess of Tokugawa* (2018, Tokyo Kirara Publishing) and *The Talented Princess of Tokugawa: The Joyful Daily Life with the Last Shogun's Princess* (illustrated by Yuri Nishi, Akita Shoten, 2021–2024, all 8 volumes).

Her family tree is as follows: her grandfather was Tokugawa Yoshikatsu, her father was Tokugawa Yoshihisa, her sister was Princess Kiku, the consort of Prince Sanjō, and her brother was Tokugawa Iemitsu. Her nephew is Tokugawa Yeshō. Her first husband was Yasuaki Matsudaira, and her second husband was Jiro Ide. Her eldest daughter, Tokuko, married Moroki Tokugawa, the 10th head of the Tainokawa family and adopted son of Tokugawa Tatsuaki. Her eldest son is Junnosuke Ide.