Josiah Conder's Rokumeikan: architecture and national representation in Meiji Japan - Japan 1868-1945: Art, Architecture, and National Identity

Josiah Conder's Rokumeikan, or Deer Cry Pavilion (fig. 1), represents the culmination of the early Meiji government's ideology of architectural representation.(1) With increasing numbers of foreign dignitaries visiting Japan in the late 1800s, the Meiji government needed to provide adequate accommodation for them. Initially it had mainly used the Enryokan, also known as the Hamagoten, situated within the Hama Detached Palace in Tokyo, but this building had been refurbished to house important foreign visitors only as a stopgap solution. Eventually the construction of a custom-designed building became necessary.

[Figure 1 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

In 1880, with the support of Inoue Kaoru (1835-1915), the powerful minister of foreign affairs, a one hundred thousand--yen budget for the projected Rokumeikan was approved and the commission for its design awarded to Josiah Conder (1852-1920), an architect trained in London under Thomas Roger Smith and William Burges.(2) Construction work started the following year in Tokyo on a plot just next to where the Imperial Hotel was later built. Because stabilizing the ground created considerable difficulties, the budget exceeded the initial allocation by at least forty thousand yen.(3) The building was officially opened on November 28, 1883, with a gala to which some twelve hundred guests, including foreign diplomats, members of the Japanese nobility, and high-ranking bureaucrats were invited. Although the construction of the Rokumeikan was prompted by the acute shortage of suitable accommodations for foreign visitors, it soon assumed a far wider role as a setting for such cosmopolitan functions as parties, charity bazaars, and above all, its famous balls.

During its apogee between 1883 and 1887, the Rokumeikan was more than simply a building: it became a symbol of a way of life. For the people of the Meiji period, westernization affected everything from living space, food, transport, dress, and entertainment, to the position of women in society. Though activities at the Rokumeikan lasted for only a short time, they seemed to epitomize the new way of life of the whole Meiji period. How did this building become such a powerful cultural icon, and what does this imply about the link between architecture and national identity in early Meiji Japan?

The Meiji era followed the resignation of the last Tokugawa shogun and restoration of direct imperial rule in 1868; it lasted until the death of Emperor Mutsuhito, known posthumously as Emperor Meiji, in 1912. Following the transfer of the capital from Kyoto to Edo (renamed Tokyo), the new Meiji government began laying the foundations for the nation's modernization. As part of its architectural policy, the government began to commission public buildings and to train Japanese architects. For both of these tasks it relied on invited Western experts, oyatoi.(4) These foreign experts, often still very young, were invited for a limited tenure to carry out particular projects for which there was no Japanese expertise available. Oyatoi architects served as both builders and educators. The most prominent of the architectural oyatoi was Conder, who started his career in Japan in 1877 and remained in the country as a practicing architect until his death in 1920. Regarded in Japan as the father of modern Japanese architecture, he succeeded in providing both public architecture for the government and architectural education for Japanese students.

The new government urgently needed new types of buildings for both practical and ideological reasons. From a practical point of view, some buildings were needed to house completely new activities, such as a university in which students would be taught subjects including modern technology and social sciences. Others were needed for institutions that were now understood and organized differently, such as the mint in which a new national currency was produced to supersede the old regional currencies. A national museum, military barracks, and government offices were other examples of buildings urgently needed by the new administration.

There were also ideological reasons behind these needs. Internally, for the Japanese themselves, these new buildings were to embody the authority of a central government that aimed to rule far more directly than had the previous Tokugawa government. Large, imposing modern edifices would impress upon the Japanese people the power and stability of the new regime. To build a modern nation, modern buildings were needed. Externally, for foreigners, these buildings would show that Japan was not a backward nation but a country worthy of being treated as an equal among other developed nations. A national museum would confirm that the nation had a history of high culture and was not an upstart in such matters. A grand military barracks would show that the sovereignty of Japan was not to be trifled with. The significant point is that this ideology demanded that these public buildings be built in Western style. The government of this new non-Western nation, trying to consolidate its rule at home and compete abroad, now adopted a purely Western architectural style.