Imperial Princess Uchiko (有智子内親王)
Imperial Princess Uchiko (807 - December 7, 847) was the fifty-second Emperor Saga's Princess. Her mother was Princess Katano. She was a member of the Imperial family and a poet of the Chinese poems in early Heian period. She was the first Kamo saiin (Imperial Princess appointed to serve the deities of the Kamo-jinja Shrines).
In 809, her father, Emperor Saga succeeded to the throne. She was appointed as Kamo saiin by fortune telling when she was four years old in 810. In 810, the Saiin no Tsukasa (the Office of the High Priestess of Kamo) was built. In February 823 she was appointed as Sanbon (the third of Imperial Princess' ranks) and was given ho (a fief) hyakko (one hundred houses). In April 823, her father, Emperor Saga abdicated from the throne. She resigned from her position due to illness in 831. In 833 she was promoted as nihon (the second of Imperial Princess' ranks). She died in 847. She was forty one years old.
It is said that Imperial Princess Uchiko was appointed as the first Kamo saiin because the Kusuko Incident ended in 810. She was one of the talented Princess in literature among Emperor Saga's children, the outstanding Chinese style poem she wrote when Emperor Saga went to visit Saiin in 823 moved the Emperor and gave the Imperial Princess the rank of Sanhon (the third rank for an Imperial Princess). These poems are left in the collection of the poems such as "Keikoku shu" (Collection for Governing the Country), she is known as one of the rare female poets in Japan.
Her mausoleum is in next to Rakushisha (Mukai Kyorai's (Japanese poet) residence) in Hinomyojin-cho Town, Ogurayama, Saga, Ukyo Ward, Kyoto City, Kyoto prefecture.