After graduating from naval artillery and torpedo warfare schools, he joined the Imperial Japanese Navy Aviation Bureau as a sub-lieutenant in 1921.

He rose to the rank of lieutenant and was attached to the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff.

Prince Yamashina retired from active service in 1927 because of declining health (he allegedly had a nervous breakdown).

Princess Sakiko was killed on 1 September 1923 during the Great Kantō earthquake, when their house in Yuigahama, Kamakura, collapsed on top of her, killing her and her unborn child named Prince Yamashina Taha (山階宮他派王, Yamashina-no-miya Taha-ō).

He never remarried, and the direct Yamashina line became extinct with his death in Tokyo on 10 August 1987.