Prince Yamashina Akira (山階宮 晃親王, Yamashina-no-miya Akira shinnō) (22 October 1816 – 17 February 1898) was a Japanese diplomat, and the founder of the Yamashina collateral line of the Japanese imperial family.
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Early life
Prince Akira was born in Kyoto, the eldest son of Prince Fushimi Kuniie (1802–1875) and Fujigi Hisako (藤木寿子). Prince Kuniie was the twentieth head of the Fushimi-no-miya, the oldest of the four branches of the imperial dynasty allowed to provide a successor to the Chrysanthemum Throne should the main imperial house fail to produce an heir. Hisako was a Nyōbō, a rank of the prince's Lady-in-waiting. Soon after his birth, he was regarded as the ninth son of his grandfather, Prince Asahiko, though this adoption was annulled far later in 1889 and he became his father's eldest son again.
It was not until 1835 that Prince Kuniie officially married Takatsukasa Hiroko (鷹司景子), and they had two sons, Sadanori and Sadanaru; this made Prince Akira unable to succeed the Fushimi-no-miya. He was thus also a half-brother of Prince Kuni Asahiko, Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa, and Prince Kan'in Kotohito.