Fashioning Japan: The Empress’s Dress and the Meiji Constitution
A Lecture by Professor Kazuhiro Takii of The International Research Center for Japanese Studies
In 2024, the Meiji Jingu Museum in Tokyo held a special exhibition showcasing a Western-style formal court dress worn by Empress Haruko, consort of Emperor Meiji. The gown, long preserved in a convent in Kyoto, had suffered significant damage over the years and underwent an extensive, multi-year restoration. The exhibition celebrated the completion of this project and was attended by members of the imperial family, including the Emperor and Empress, as well as the Emperor Emeritus and Empress Emerita. I had the opportunity to contribute to this restoration project and delivered an invited lecture at the symposium held at Meiji Jingu in connection with the exhibition.
As a historian specializing in constitutional history, one might wonder why I became involved with an imperial dress. The answer lies in the timing: the gown is believed to have been made around 1889, the very year Japan promulgated its first modern constitution. This dress and the Meiji Constitution share more than just a historical moment. Both reflect Japan’s determined effort during the Meiji era to absorb and domesticate Western institutions and cultural forms on its own terms. In this lecture, I will explore the fascinating resonance between these two creations - the Empress’s Western dress and the Meiji Constitution - as symbolic artifacts of Japan’s self-directed modernization.
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
5:30 PM
Smith Memorial Student Union Room 327/8/9
Free and Open to the Public
Please Use the Entrance on SW Broadway