Volta
Politics23 December 1871 – 13 September 1873

Iwakura Mission

Also called: Iwakura Embassy

Half of the Meiji leadership spent a year and nine months in the United States and Europe, sounding out revision of the unequal treaties and studying Western institutions and industry.

Leaders of the Iwakura Mission — from left, Kido Takayoshi, Yamaguchi Naoyoshi, Iwakura Tomomi, Itō Hirobumi and Ōkubo Toshimichi, 1872
Leaders of the Iwakura Mission — from left, Kido Takayoshi, Yamaguchi Naoyoshi, Iwakura Tomomi, Itō Hirobumi and Ōkubo Toshimichi, 1872

Unknown author · Public domain · Source

In December 1871 about a hundred people — ambassador Iwakura Tomomi, core leaders such as Kido Takayoshi, Ōkubo Toshimichi and Itō Hirobumi, and students — sailed from Yokohama. Rebuffed in America when they raised treaty revision, they turned to studying parliaments, factories and schools in Britain, France, Germany, Russia and elsewhere. Returning in September 1873 and insisting that national strength come first, they overturned the caretaker government’s decision (backed by Saigō Takamori and Itagaki Taisuke) to send a mission to Korea, and Saigō and Itagaki left the government. Korea’s 1881 inspection mission to Japan was a study tour of the same kind.

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States and rulers at the time
Japan — Emperor Meiji

People

  • Iwakura Tomomi1825 – 1883

    diplomat · Court noble who engineered the imperial restoration and led the Meiji government’s 1871–1873 embassy to America and Europe

  • Ōkubo Toshimichi1830 – 1878

    diplomat · Satsuma statesman who led the early Meiji government, pushing through the abolition of the domains and state-led industry, and opposed invading Korea

  • Itō Hirobumi1841 – 1909

    participant · First prime minister of Japan who forced the 1905 protectorate treaty and became the first Resident-General; shot by Ahn Jung-geun at Harbin

  • Saigō Takamori1828 – 1877

    related figure · Satsuma leader of the Meiji Restoration who resigned when his call to send a mission to Korea was rejected, and died leading the Satsuma Rebellion

Before and after

Earlier
1871 Abolition of the Domains and the Meiji Reforms
Later
1874 Freedom and People’s Rights Movement

Themes that include this event

  • The Opening of East Asia1839 – 1901

    From the Opium War to the Boxer Protocol — sixty years in which China, Japan and Korea, forced open by Western gunboats, each tried to reform and went separate ways