Japan’s First Modern Enthronement: The Ceremonies for Emperor Taishō in 1915

Crown Prince Yoshihito (Emperor Taishō) circa 1908. (© Mary Evans Picture Library/Aflo)

Ōkuma Shigenobu. (© National Diet Library)

Fourteen-year-old Hirohito mounts a jinrikisha in the Saga district of Kyoto on April 7, 1916. He is wearing the uniform of an army lieutenant. (© Yomiuri Shimbun)

The Shishinden hall and Dantei (South Garden) of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, where Emperor Taishō’s enthronement ceremony was held. The Takamikura and Michōdai platforms, used in Tokyo when Emperor Naruhito and his father, Akihito, ascended the throne, are normally kept here in Kyoto. Photographed in April 2018. (© Jiji)