Emperor Meiji in Western Dress

A print depicting Emperor Meiji in Western dress — one of the most symbolically significant transformations of the Meiji period, when the emperor began appearing in public in Western military uniform rather than traditional court robes. The adoption of Western dress by the imperial family was a deliberately orchestrated signal of Japan's commitment to modernization, and prints depicting the emperor in Western clothes served both documentary and propagandistic purposes, showing Japanese people a leader who had embraced the forms of the modern world.