Emperor Meiji (3 November 1852 – 30 July 1912) was Emperor of Japan from 3 February 1867 to 30 July 1912, succeeding Emperor Komei and preceding Emperor Taisho. Meiji presided over a time of rapid change in his country, changing Japan from an isolated feudal state to a capitalist and imperial world power.
Biography[]
Sachinomiya was born in Kyoto, Japan on 3 November 1852, the son of Emperor Komei and Nakayama Yoshiko. In 1860, he became the heir to the throne, and his personal name was changed to "Mutsuhito". In 1867, Komei died of smallpox, and Mutsuhito acceded the throne. During his early reign, the royalist Court Faction of politics fought against the powerful Shogunate Faction, which sought to preserve the power of the shogun (military leader) over the Emperor. Emperor Meiji's loyalists overthrew the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Boshin War, enabling Emperor Meiji to become the absolute ruler of Japan. In 1871, the han feudal system was abolished, bringing an end to Japanese feudalism and creating an absolute monarchy.
In 1889, he proclaimed the Meiji Constitution, creating a new constitutional monarchy, and he made other moves to Westernize Japan, including hiring foreign advisers to train the Imperial Japanese Army, forming an alliance with the United Kingdom in order to improve the Imperial Japanese Navy's quality (as well as to stave off Russia), and replaced traditional clothing with Western clothing. Emperor Meiji also fought a few wars to project Japan's power, the most notable of them being the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895 and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904. These wars allowed for Japan to expand its colonial empire, adding Taiwan and some ports in China to Japanese control; Korea became a vassal of Japan, and it would be formally annexed in 1910. Meiji died in 1912, and his reign would be remembered as perhaps the most transformative period in Japanese history.
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