page_title: History of Japan
section_title: Meiji period (1868–1912)
hierarchical_section_title: History of Japan / Modern Japan / Meiji period (1868–1912)
caption_attribution_description: Conté portrait of the Emperor Meiji, drawn by Chiossone during his employment by the Imperial Printing Bureau: Chiossone was ordered to covertly sketch the emperor and create the final portrait from those sketches. The completed work was then photographed and distributed under the tacit approval of the Emperor to foreign governments and Japanese schools.&#91;1&#93;&#91;2&#93; The realism of the drawing was such that many mistook the portrait for an actual photograph.&#91;1&#93;&#91;3&#93;
context_page_description: The first human habitation in the Japanese archipelago has been traced to prehistoric times around 30,000 BC. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi people in the first millennium BC when new technologies were introduced from continental Asia. During this period, the first known written reference to Japan was recorded in the Chinese Book of Han in the first century AD.
  Between the fourth century and the ninth century, Japan's many kingdoms and tribes gradually came to be unified under a centralized government, nominally controlled by the Emperor of Japan. This imperial dynasty continues to reign over Japan. In 794, a new imperial capital was established at Heian-kyō, marking the beginning of the Heian period, which lasted until 1185. The Heian period is considered a golden age of classical Japanese culture. Japanese religious life from this time and onwards was a mix of native Shinto practices and Buddhism.
  Over the following centuries, the power of the emperor and the imperial court declined, passing first to great clans of civilian aristocrats – most notably the Fujiwara – and then to the military clans and their armies of samurai.
context_section_description: The emperor was restored to nominal supreme power, and in 1869, the imperial family moved to Edo, which was renamed Tokyo ("eastern capital"). However, the most powerful men in the government were former samurai from Chōshū and Satsuma rather than the emperor, who was fifteen in 1868. These men, known as the Meiji oligarchs, oversaw the dramatic changes Japan would experience during this period. The leaders of the Meiji government, who are regarded as some of the most successful statesmen in human history, desired Japan to become a modern nation-state that could stand equal to the Western imperialist powers. Among them were Ōkubo Toshimichi and Saigō Takamori from Satsuma, as well as Kido Takayoshi, Ito Hirobumi, and Yamagata Aritomo from Chōshū.
caption: Emperor Meiji, the 122nd Emperor of Japan
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.4.7", "Image DateTime": "2011:11:03 20:58:56", "Image ExifOffset": "146", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "879", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1203"}