Hvem daterede Meiji-kejseren?

Meiji-kejseren (3. november 1852-30. juli 1912), hvis personlige navn var Mutsuhito, var den 122. kejser af Japan.

Som kejser blev han – i hvert fald symbolsk – leder af den japanske industrialisering og udtrædelse af feudal-tiden, efter revolutionen kendt som Meiji-restaurationen. Tokugawa-shogunatets magt blev knust og erstattet med oligarki. Hverken kejseren eller parlamentet sad på den største magt. Det gjorde i stedet den gruppe af mænd, der kaldtes Genro – en gruppe af ældre, pensionerede embedsmænd, der var tilknyttet først Meiji- og siden Taishō-kejseren.

I Meiji-perioden blev grundstenene til den imperialistiske militarisering lagt, der resulterede i flere krige og kulminerede med Japans tilslutning til aksemagterne under anden verdenskrig.

Chigusa Kotoko (千種任子, July 19, 1855 - February 1, 1944) was the fourth concubine of Emperor Meiji. She gave birth to two daughters who died of meningitis in infancy. Although Meiji was the last Japanese emperor to have more than one consort, the official role at court was not abolished until 1924; surviving concubines remained as members of the imperial family in retirement.

Yanagiwara Naruko (Japanese: 柳原愛子), also known as Sawarabi no Tsubone (26 June 1859 – 16 October 1943), was a Japanese lady-in-waiting of the Imperial House of Japan. A concubine of Emperor Meiji, she was the mother of Emperor Taishō and the last concubine to have given birth to a reigning Japanese emperor.

Hamuro Mitsuko (葉室 光子; February 3, 1853 – September 22, 1873) was the first concubine of Emperor Meiji, and the mother of his first child Wakamitsuteru-hiko no Mikoto (稚瑞照彦尊). Wakamitsuteru-hiko no Mikoto was stillborn, and Mitsuko died of complications from his delivery five days later. Mitsuko was assisted in the delivery by Kusumoto Ine, the first woman doctor of western medical training in Japan.

Mitsuko's tomb is at Toshimagaoka Imperial Cemetery at Gokoku-ji in Bunkyo, Tokyo.