The last prince of Japan chose an American girl over Shōgun inheritance.
September 19, 1851: Tadaatsu Matsudaira was born in Edo Castle, heir to one of the most powerful samurai families in Japan.
Tadaatsu came from the extended bloodline of the Tokugawa clan, the shogunate family that ruled Japan for more than 250 years. As a young man, he was selected to join the first wave of Japanese students sent to study abroad. He attended Rutgers, then Harvard, where he trained as a civil engineer.
It was during his time at Harvard that he met Carrie Sampson, an American bookstore clerk. The two fell in love. But when word reached Japan, Tadaatsu’s family issued an ultimatum: return home and marry someone they had chosen, or be disowned.
Tadaatsu chose love.
American Life
He married Carrie, a year after graduating Harvard. Tadaatsu went on to work for Manhattan Elevated Railway, where he contributed to the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge — one of the greatest engineering achievements of the era. They then moved to Wyoming where he worked for the Union Pacific Railroad. Eventually, he became the city engineer for Bradford, Pennsylvania — likely making him the first Japanese American to hold such an important office in a city government in the U.S.
Meanwhile, they had a son Tarō, who died as a small child, a daughter, Fumiye, and another son, Kinjirō.
Cut Off and Forgotten
But Tadaatsu developed tuberculosis by this time. They figured dry air in Denver could be good for him, and the two moved west to Colorado. Tadaatsu is believed to have been the first Japanese immigrant to settle in Colorado. He was working for the Colorado State Engineer’s Office overseeing inspections on mining operations, another respectable position. But only a year later, in 1888, he died at just 37 years old.
Tadaatsu’s older brother Tadanari, who also studied in America but had returned to Japan, inherited the family fortune and titles. Tadaatsu, having chosen his own path, was left out of the family legacy. His grave at Denver’s Riverside Cemetery remained modest and largely forgotten for decades.
Remembering Tadaatsu
But the Japanese American community in Denver didn’t forget forever. In the early 1950s, the Japanese Association of Denver raised funds to replace his small gravestone with a more dignified monument, honoring the legacy of a man who had once been a prince — and chose instead to be a husband, father, and pioneer.
Years later, journalist Bill Hosokawa conducted some of the most extensive research ever done on Tadaatsu’s life. His 2005 book, Colorado’s Japanese Americans, helped preserve the story of this early Japanese immigrant and the remarkable legacy he left behind.
Today, Tadaatsu Matsudaira’s story remains one of the most remarkable, yet largely untold, chapters in early Japanese American history. A young nobleman from Edo Castle. A Harvard love romance.
And a son who would one day make history in his own right — his second son Kinjirō later became the first Asian American mayor in the United States.
Remarkable story!