Following the end of the Tokugawa shogunate and its strict isolationist policy, the Meiji era of Japan (1868-1912) saw rapid modernization as it opened its borders to the West. The new government was ready to present itself as a modern nation by the 1880s, hosting grand balls and elaborate banquets for foreign guests. The center of Japan’s Westernization is said to have been the Rokumeikan, an opulent two-story building completed in 1883. It was commissioned by Marquess Inoue Kaoru, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and designed by British architect Josiah…
