Cesarza mutsuhito biography

Japan’s victory over Russia in , although won at great cost and, one might say, by the skin of their teeth, represented a great triumph and gave rise to an upsurge in nationalism.

By many Japanese were too young to remember the time of their country’s humiliating weakness in the face of the dominant Western powers, the senior political and military leaders from Satsuma and Chôshû, remembering the attacks both domains had suffered in the s, must surely have felt more than highly gratified.

Meanwhile, as his reign matured and Japan went from strength to strength, the person of the emperor Mutsuhito seemed to retreat more and more behind the image of the sovereign.

He no longer travelled as much as he had done before ; his last major tour had been back in Instead, copies of a likeness from the hands of the Italian artist Cloisonné (for the emperor hated being photographed) were circulated.

Showing a handsome man in his prime, his military unif