Emperor Meiji

Emperor of Japan

• Born: November 3, 1852
• Place of Birth: Place of birth: Kyoto, Japan
• Died: July 30, 1912
• Place of Death: Place of death: Tokyo, Japan

Significance: Emperor Meiji was the 122nd ruler of imperial Japan, reigning from 1867 until his death in 1912. He marked the period of his rule, known as the Meiji era, with a series of Western-influenced improvements to Japan's government, economy, military, and society. By the time Meiji died, Japan had swiftly transitioned from a poor agricultural society into a great industrial world power.

Background

Emperor Meiji was born on November 3, 1852, in Kyoto, Japan. He was the only surviving son of Emperor Komei and his consort, Nakayama Yoshiko. Meiji was called Prince Sachi for the first several years of his life but was later given the personal name Mutsuhito. He was raised and educated by the imperial nobility in Kyoto so he could one day assume his father's throne.

Meiji came of age in a period of political instability in Japan. The country in the mid-nineteenth century was a poor, weak nation. For the previous two and a half centuries, Japan had been ruled by the Tokugawa shogunate, the administration of the Tokugawa clan of shoguns, or military dictators. Although the imperial line was allowed to continue, the emperors were subordinate to the shoguns.

Under the shogunate, Japan was a feudal system, one in which nobles allowed peasants to live and work on their land in exchange for military service. In this era, hundreds of self-governing feudal lords ruled over their own parts of Japan, unable to be controlled or organized by the shogunate. With a disorderly military, Japan was left open to threats from foreign powers. Consequently, Japan could only submit when, in the 1850s, the United States forced it to grant American merchants special commercial access to Japanese trade markets.

Humiliated by Japan's current position, a group of samurais, or warriors, overthrew the shogunate in 1868 to restore rule of Japan to the emperors. Meanwhile, Meiji had ascended to the imperial throne in 1867, following the death of his father. The end of the shogunate the next year meant he would now reign over the newly established Empire of Japan.

This new era was soon called Meiji, which meant "enlightened rule." The emperor took this name as his own to symbolize his rule, officially becoming known as Emperor Meiji. For this reason, the 1868 revolution that saw Japan's emperor return to power was called the Meiji Restoration.

Life's Work

In 1868, Meiji began collaborating with the various leaders of his new government to begin what would become Japan's rapid modernization into an industrial, Western-style world power. Meiji intended ultimately for Japan to become a free and equal democracy overseen by the emperor.

Doing this required reforming numerous aspects of Japanese society. Therefore, Meiji mandated that all social classes were now equal, meaning the warlords and samurais, who had held great power during the feudal era, were now deprived of their land privileges over the peasants. Meiji also debuted new compulsory education to teach children the skills and values necessary to become model Japanese citizens; granted freedom of religion throughout the country; and introduced a national military with universal conscription.

In 1889, Meiji and his leaders created a constitution that established a national government administered by a parliament, known as the Diet, and a group of various individual leaders. These officials served on behalf of the emperor, but Meiji himself held little actual political power.

With these government fixtures in place, Japan under Meiji quickly transformed into an industrialized state. The country grew its economy by increasing exports such as textiles to pay for heavy machinery to make steel and build ships. The number of farmers gradually decreased as more laborers started working in factories and offices in ever-expanding cities.

Meiji began exercising Japan's military strength in the 1890s to equalize the country with the great powers of the West. In the Sino-Japanese War that lasted from 1894 to 1895, Japan defeated China for possession of the island of Taiwan. A decade later, Japan won the 1904–1905 Russo-Japanese War with Russia over control of eastern China's Manchuria region. In 1910, Japan finally acquired the peninsula of Korea, a long sought-after colonial possession.

Meiji died on July 30, 1912, after succumbing to a growing range of health problems. Although his death officially ended the Meiji era, Japan continued along the path Emperor Meiji had begun decades earlier, seeking military strength, overseas power, and international respect.

Impact

Meiji's major overhaul of Japan's society, economy, and military converted the weak, agricultural nation into a robust world power. Japan's quest for international influence into the mid-twentieth century eventually made the country a central actor in World War II, when it defended its expanding empire against the United States and its allies. Japan was eventually defeated in the conflict, and the Empire of Japan was formally dissolved in 1947.

In 2023 and 2024, a collection of artifacts from Japan’s Meiji Period toured several museums in the United States as part of an exhibition entitled, Meiji Modern: Fifty Years of New Japan.

Personal Life

Meiji was survived in death by his wife, several concubines, and five of the fifteen total children he had fathered in his life. Many countries—even those with which Japan had fought during the Meiji era, such as China and Russia—publicly praised the late emperor for all he had achieved during his reign.

Bibliography

"Japan's Modern History: An Outline of the Period." Asia for Educators, 2024, afe.easia.columbia.edu/tps/1750‗jp.htm. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

Keene, Donald. Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852–1912. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. Print.

"Meiji Modern: Fifty Years of New Japan." Asia Society, 2024, asiasociety.org/new-york/exhibitions/meiji-modern-fifty-years-new-japan. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

"Meiji Period (1868–1912)." Japan-Guide.com, 2024, www.japan-guide.com/e/e2130.html. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

"Monarch Profile: Emperor Meiji of Japan." The Mad Monarchist, 8 Apr. 2015, madmonarchist.blogspot.com/2015/04/monarch-profile-emperor-meiji-of-japan.html. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.

Squires, Graham. "Meiji Period." World History Encyclopedia, 20 Oct. 2022, www.worldhistory.org/Meiji‗Period/#google‗vignette. Accessed 1 Oct. 2024.