The National Diet of Japan

This 1889 woodblock triptych (color woodcut, three sheets), held by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco at the Legion of Honor (accession 1963.30.5657), depicts the inauguration of Japan's new bicameral Imperial Diet, the central institution of the constitutional state established by the Meiji Constitution of February 1889. The print shows the assembled members of the House of Representatives and the House of Peers in the chamber of the new Diet building, with the Emperor Meiji presiding over the proceedings from a raised dais. The promulgation of the Constitution and the convening of the first Diet in 1890 marked the formal completion of the constitutional reforms that had been the central political project of the early Meiji period, and prints documenting the new institutions — the Diet, the cabinet, the Privy Council, the courts — circulated widely in Tokyo and the provinces as visual records of the transition from oligarchic rule to constitutional government. Kunitoshi's triptych was among the most ambitious of these documentary prints, deploying the full three-sheet format to encompass the architectural scale and ceremonial choreography of the assembled Diet. The composition is densely populated with seated representatives in Western dress, court officials in robes, and observers in the galleries, and the rich palette of reds, blues, and golds is characteristic of the high-keyed Meiji print aesthetic. The work is held in the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the Legion of Honor and is a representative example of Kunitoshi's contribution to the visual record of constitutional Japan.