Marquis was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II. Born as HIH Kitashirakawa-no-miya Teruhisa, as the younger son of HIH Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa, his title was devolved from royal status that that of the kazoku peerage in 1910 in order to preserve the Komatsu family line, which had become extinct with the death of Prince Komatsu Akihito in 1908.