Prince Yoshihito was born at the
Tōgū Palace in
Akasaka, Tokyo to
Emperor Meiji and
Yanagiwara Naruko, a
concubine with the official title of
gon-no-tenji (imperial concubine). As was common practice at the time, Emperor Meiji's consort,
Empress Shōken, was officially regarded as his mother. He received the personal name of Yoshihito Shinnō and the title
Haru-no-miya from the Emperor on 6 September 1879. His two older siblings had died in infancy, and he too, was born sickly. Prince Yoshihito contracted
cerebral meningitis within three weeks of his birth. As was the practice at the time, Prince Yoshihito was entrusted to the care of his great-grandfather, Marquess
Nakayama Tadayasu, in whose house he lived from infancy until the age of seven. Prince Nakayama had also raised Taishō's father, the Emperor Meiji, as a child. From March 1885, Prince Yoshihito moved to the Aoyama Detached Palace, where he was tutored in the mornings on reading, writing, arithmetic, and morals, and in the afternoons on sports, but progress was slow due to his poor health and frequent fevers. From 1886, he was taught together with 15–20 selected classmates from the
ōke and higher ranking
kazoku peerage at a special school, the
Gogakumonsho, within the Aoyama Palace. For these health reasons, he spent much of his youth at the Imperial villas at
Hayama and
Numazu, both of which are located by the sea. Although the prince showed skill in some areas, such as horse riding, he proved to be poor in areas requiring higher-level thought. He was finally withdrawn from Gakushuin before finishing the middle school course in 1894. However, he did appear to have an aptitude for languages and continued to receive extensive tutoring in
French,
Chinese, and history from private tutors at the
Akasaka Palace; Emperor Meiji gave
Prince Takehito responsibility for taking care of Prince Yoshihito, and the two princes became friends. From 1898, largely at the insistence of
Itō Hirobumi, the Prince began to attend sessions of the
House of Peers of the
Diet of Japan as a way of learning about the political and military concerns of the country. In the same year, he gave his first official receptions to foreign diplomats, with whom he was able to shake hands and converse graciously. His infatuation with western culture and tendency to sprinkle French words into his conversations was a source of irritation for Emperor Meiji. In October 1898, the Prince also traveled from the Numazu Imperial Villa to
Kobe,
Hiroshima, and
Etajima, visiting sites connected with the
Imperial Japanese Navy. He made another tour in 1899 to
Kyūshū, visiting government offices, schools and factories (such as
Yawata Iron and Steel in
Fukuoka and the
Mitsubishi shipyards in
Nagasaki). == Marriage ==