Prince Sanetsune Tokudaiji GCVO (徳大寺 実則, 10 January 1840 – 4 June 1919) was a Japanese statesman and Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan during the Meiji era.

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Quick Facts Prince, 2nd Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal ...

Prince Tokudaiji Sanetsune
徳大寺実則
Duke Sanetsune Tokudaiji, c. 1913
2nd Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
In office February 21, 1891 – August 12, 1912
Monarch	Meiji
Preceded by	Sanjō Sanetomi
Succeeded by	Katsura Tarō
Personal details
Born	10 January 1840 Kyoto, Japan
Died	4 June 1919 (aged 79) Tokyo, Japan

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Tokudaiji Sanetsune was born to a branch of the Fujiwara court nobility in Kyoto. His father was Tokudaiji Kin'ito, and his brother was Saionji Kinmochi, later Prime Minister of Japan.

Joining the sonnō jōi ("Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarian") faction in Court against westernization and the Tokugawa shogunate, he was forced to flee Kyoto during the coup d'état by the moderate samurai of the Aizu and Satsuma domains on 18 August 1863. He returned after the Meiji Restoration and served in a number of posts in the new government. He became a Dainagon in 1869.

In 1884, he was given the title of koshaku (marquis) under the new kazoku nobility rankings, and was subsequently elevated to koshaku (prince). In 1891 he became Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan a post he held until Emperor Meiji's death. He felt very strongly that the Emperor should not involve himself in politics or in the decision-making process of government.

• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (22 November 1877)
• Marquess (7 July 1884)
• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers (7 October 1895)
• Grand Cordon of the Order of the Chrysanthemum (1 April 1906)
• Prince (21 April 1911)
• Collar of the Order of the Chrysanthemum (4 June 1919; posthumous)