Yoshiko, the twelfth and the last daughter was born to His Imperial Highness Prince Taruhito of Arisugawa-no-miya family with a courtesan Ando Kiyoko. Called Princess Tomi when very young, and before coming to Edo from Kyoto. Named 2=貞芳院 by husband for in case if she be widowed, then called Madam Bummei post humously when she died in 1893 at the age of 89 in Tokyo. Tokugawa Yoshiko rests at Zuiryusan temple, the official Bodhi temple of Mito clan in Ibaraki Prefecture. One of her elder sisters, Princess Takako, was married to the twelfth shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi, and others were married to feudal lords, one the wife of Asano Narikata of Hiroshima Domain and the other of Mori clan of Chōshū Domain. In 1830 and at the age of 27, Yoshiko was engaged to Nariaki who was 37 but had not had the first wife as he had become the chief of his clan just a year ago. Princess Takako, Yoshiko's elder sister who married a shogun, was said to have arranged the marriage, and there is a record of Emperor Ninkō's comment that Mito clan had been good in both politics and education since predecessors. The Mito clan was renowned to support the imperial system with enthusiasm for generations, and that the emperor gladly approved the marriage of Princess to a loyal feudal lord. When Yoshiko came to Edo and started leading a life of samurai wife, she kept the attire of imperial household for weeks after her marriage, which she wore and posed for a portrait wearing Kosode gown and hakamalong skirt. In a letter boxed with that portrait, Nariaki called his wife Yoshiko, not Princess Yoshiko or other names. Among 37 children of Nariaki with four wives, Yoshiko was the mother of their first son Yoshiatsu, the seventh son Yoshinobu after an infant died prematurely, and a daughter as the last child. Yoshiko was known to be fluent in arts, especially wakaJapanese poems as well as Japanese calligraphy as the Arisugawa family heritage. Embroidery and playing music on koto and hichiriki was among her hobbies, while after relocating to Mito from Edo, leant to fish at the river down the castle. As being the younger sister-in-law to Ieyoshi the twelfth shogun and being an imperial princess, those higher ranks including Ii Naosuke and his followers in Edo government were said to keep an eye on her if she would advise either the shogun or the emperor on political issues. While Nariaki was charged to take part in anti-shogun movements at Ansei Purge, and was detained in Mito for lifetime in 1859, it took her three months to obtain permission and move from Edo to Mito. Widowed the next year, Yoshiko followed samurai custom and cut her hair short and made a pabbajja, retiring from social activities and was renamed as Teiho-in 2=貞芳院.
Later life
Between 1869 and 1873, Yoshiko resided in the Kobuntei Villa in Kairaku-en garden her late husband had opened. Her stepson Akitake invited Yoshiko to live in his mansion at Koume, Tokyo, which was the shimo-yashiki, or the second official residence of the Mito clan in Edo. While the samurai custom prohibited Yoshiko to live with her only surviving natural son, Yoshinobu, they were exchanging letters: Yoshinobu had been adopted to Hitotsubashi family when he was eleven to be entitled as an heir to shogunate, so that he no more was regarded as Yoshiko's "direct family". It took years for Yoshiko before overcoming the prejudice among Meiji politicians as being an anti-government, as being the mother of Yoshinobu who had opened fire against the government supporters in Kyoto, and on top of that, the Mito clan was known to be radically against opening the country to foreign relations and trades. As the emperor governed the Meiji government, Yoshiko had been distanced from her kins in Kyoto, before she regained family ties with her grand nephew Prince Taruhito of Arisugawa family . It was after she moved to Tokyo and Prince Taruhito wrote in his diary that since after January 1873, Yoshiko invited the Prince to her residence, sent gifts when she heard Taruhito was ill, and when the engagement of Prince Taruhito was publicised in June 1873. Yoshiko recovered her social status when late Nariaki was honored with the rank of Sho-ni-i or the Second Rank of Honor, post-humously in 1873 and commemorated the occasion by giving Prince Taruhito a stationary Naruhito had handcrafted. When Prince Taruhito lost his first wife Sadako to illness in 1872, Yoshiko mourned over the death of her step daughter, and tried to show condolence by arranging an extended family reunion of the children of Nariaki for the deceased, with Prince Taruhito as the guest of honor. The eldest surviving son Ikeda Yoshinori offered his residence, who was the lord of Tottori domain, inviting Akitake, Atsuyoshi, Matsudaira Tadakazu, Tsuchiya Tsugunao among others. Princess Ei, wife of Akitake joined them who was Taruhito's pupil of calligraphy. Madam Bummei, or her posthumous name was said to be given by her late husband Nariaki even before his death.
