Emperor Meiji
The first Constitutional Monarch of Japan, who presided over modern Japan following the Meiji Restoration
1852–1912
The 122nd emperor of Japan, who reigned from 1867 to 1912. Born in Kyoto on September 22, 1852 as the second son of Emperor Komei. Initially named Sachinomiya, he was renamed Mutsuhito when he became crown prince in 1860. After the sudden death in December 1867 of his father, Emperor Komei, he acceded to the imperial throne the following month at the age of 14. In October of the same year, as efforts to overthrow the shogunate were intensifying, he sanctioned a report presented by Yoshinobu Tokugawa, the 15th shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, to return political power to the emperor, and in December 1868, he issued a decree for the restoration of imperial rule. The decree declared the abolishment of the shogunate as well as its regents and chief advisers and demanded the establishment of a new government.
During the Boshin War, which lasted approximately a year and a half after it began in January 1868, Emperor Meiji dispatched expeditionary forces to overpower the former shogunate, and meanwhile issued the Charter Oath of Five Articles, which outlined what the fundamental principles of the new government were to be. In July of the same year, Edo was renamed Tokyo, and in September, the era name was updated to Meiji, with an imperial decree stipulating that the era would be considered to extend retroactively to the first day of the year’s first month. After the capital was relocated to Tokyo from Kyoto, in order to press forward with the establishment of a centralized governmental framework, he sanctioned the return of the land and people from the feudal lords to the people in June 1869 and abolished the feudal domains to establish the prefectural system the following month. In February 1889, he effectively established the foundations of the country as a modern state with his proclamation of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan. From 1872 through 1885, in what would later come to be known as his Six Great Imperial Tours, he made efforts to pay imperial visits to all quarters of the country, spreading familiarity with his image as an emperor within Japan’s new state system among the citizenry. In his daily life he aimed for simplicity. With a keen interest in waka poetry as well, he is also known for his composition of around 100,000 poems. He passed away on July 29, 1912, and is enshrined in the Fushimi Momoyama Tomb in Kyoto’s Fushimi ward.
Related People, Things and Events
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Images depicting imperial inspection or spectation
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Past Exhibitions
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Institutions Holding Related Materials
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A Reserch Center of Niigata University
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東京農工大学科学博物館の歴史は明治19年（1886年）、東京農工大学工学部の前身である農商務省蚕病試験場の「参考品陳列場」にはじまります。昭和27年（1952年）、博物館法に基づく「博物館相当施設」に指定され、昭和52年（1977年）には工学部附属繊維博物館として制度化されました。平成20年度より「東京農工大学科学博物館」へと名称を変更し、工学部附属から全学化された科学博物館へ、繊維に特化した博物館から、本学の農学・工学の研究成果を発信する基地として、またこれまで以上に研究・教育活動に重点をおいた大学博物館施設としての生まれ変わりが期待されております。
東京都渋谷区に所在。明治天皇と昭憲皇太后を御祭祀とし、大正9年11月1日に創建された。
昭和48年（1973）、都立日比谷図書館の蔵書を引き継ぎ、東京都港区に開館。明治時代の東京に関する絵画や写真などの資料を多く保管している。豊原国周作「今様美人写真鑑」を所蔵。
早稲田大学の前身「東京専門学校」が明治15年（1882）に図書室を設置して以来の歴史を有する大学図書館。 「版籍奉還諸侯名簿」や「於隅田川海軍之端舟競走水雷火試発天覧之図」などを所蔵する。
山形県酒田市に所在。「明治天皇行幸図」の他、同市に縁のある文化人の旧蔵書や旧家に伝わる古文書などを所蔵する。
External Links
内閣総理大臣の管理の下、皇室関係の国家事務を担い、御璽・国璽を保管する。
国立公文書館の特集ページ。明治維新にはじまる日本近代化の軌跡を公文書によって紐解く。
References
- ジョン・ブリーン 著,平凡社
- 宮内庁 編,吉川弘文館
- 松本健一 著,中央公論社
- 坂本多加雄,中央公論社
- 御厨貴 著,中央公論新社