The Takatsukasa family (鷹司家) is a branch of the Fujiwara clan of Japan. In the 13th century, the main line of the Fujiwara family split into five houses: Konoe, Takatsukasa, Kujo, Nijo and Ichijo. These five families in turn provided regents for the Emperor, and were thus known as the Five Regent Houses.
The founder of the Takatsukasa family was Fujiwara Kanehira . The family took its name from the section of Kyoto in which they resided. The family crest is the peony. Their status was kuge.
The Takatsukasa family died out in the Sengoku period. Later, at the beginning of the Edo period, a son of Nijo Haruyoshi took the name Takatsukasa Nobufusa and revived the household.
Nobufusa's daughter Takako married Iemitsu, the third Tokugawa shogun. But she didn't have a child.
In 1869, the head of the Takatsukasa family became a prince (or duke), and a member of the kazoku. Princess Kazuko, the third daughter of Hirohito, the Emperor Showa, married the heir of Takatsukasa.
