MEIJI PERIOD (LATE 19TH CENTURY)

The new imperial government formed during the Meiji Restoration in 1868 was spearheaded by a group of counsellors keen to secure Japanese power internationally as they entered the globalised market after three centuries of national isolation. Advocates of Western learning and industry, these statesman established themselves at the centre of the Meiji government, rapidly modernising Japan through political reform and foreign policy. As part of this a succession of missions were dispatched from Japan including the Japanese Embassy to the United States (1860), the First Japanese Embassy to Europe (1862), and the Second Japanese Embassy to Europe (1863).

The Iwakura Mission to the United States and Europe from 1871 to 1873 is generally considered the most significant mission in terms of its impact on Japan’s modernisation during this period. Head of the mission was the politician Iwakura Tomomi (1825-1883), who was accompanied by numerous ministers and scholars totalling a mission staff of forty-eight. A key figure who joined the mission was Okubo Toshimichi (1830-1878), widely regarded as one of the founders of modern Japan.

Another significant modernising figure of this period, Machida Hisanari (1838-1897), travelled to Europe for a two year period in 1875, where he visited the British Museum, the Louvre, and participated in the International Exposition of 1867 in Paris, prior to becoming the first director of the Tokyo National Museum once he returned to Japan.

This impressive pair of vases commemorate many of these statesmen and scholars, along with others who did not travel abroad but are notable due to their contribution to the industrialisation of Japan. One vase features thirty individual portraits accompanied by their names rendered in both Japanese and Roman script. Included are Iwakura Tomomi, Okubo Toshimichi, Machida Hisanari, Itagaki Taisuke (1837-1919), Katsu Kaishu (1823-1899), Maejima Hisoka (1835-1919) Yamaguchi Hisayoshi (1839-1894), Sasaki Takayuki (1830-1910), Kagenori Ueno (1845-1888), Inoue Kaoru (1836-1915), Yamao Yozo (1837-1917), Tanaka Fujimaro (1845-1909), Oshima Takato (1826-1901), and Kido Takayoshi (1833-1877). The other vase features a more traditional decoration of domestic scenes on scattered open fans.

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