Autumn Special Exhibition Lives and Treasures of the Owari Tokugawa Princesses

In the Edo period, when marriage represented an alliance between families, the successive lords of the Owari domain, the most senior of the three main Tokugawa branch families, received their legal wives from other branches of the Tokugawa family, including the shogunal family, as well as from the court nobility and other daimyo families. In order to ensure the continuity of the bloodline, other ladies were also taken as concubines. In some cases, the sons of these concubines became successors to the family headship, raising their mothers' position to next in rank to the daimyo's legal wife.
This exhibition presents objects connected to the official wives, concubines, and daughters who supported the successive heads of the Owari Tokugawa family and the political roles behind the scenes and illuminates the nature of their lives.