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.

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.

Prince Akira took the tonsure and entered the priesthood under the title Saihan Hoshinnō.

However, with the growing movement to overthrow the Tokugawa government in the years leading up to the Meiji Restoration, Emperor Kōmei returned him to secular status, adopted him as a potential heir, and created the title "Yamashina-no-miya" as a new branch of the Imperial house in 1858.

Prince Yamashina Akira never officially married, but he had a least one concubine, Nakajō Chieko (中條千枝子).