 Though legally commoners today, the heads of the family held the title of baron in the Imperial Japanese peerage ("kazoku") before its abolition in 1947.Senge Kunimaro is a second cousin (twice removed) of the present Emperor and a distant cousin twice over of Princess Noriko.He and Noriko are third cousins once removed by their shared descent from Prince Kujō Michitaka, who was the father of the Empress Teimei, Princess Noriko's great-grandmother and Senge Kunimaro's great-great-aunt.