Background The site of the Rokumeikan was in
Hibiya, near the
Imperial Palace on land which had formerly been used as an arsenal for the
Satsuma domain. After the
Meiji restoration, in 1872 the land became the headquarters of the secretariat charged with preparations for the
Vienna Exhibition of 1873. Between July 1875 and October 1881 the land was occupied by the colossal "Yamashita Monnai Museum", a combined zoological and
botanical garden, which was then moved to
Ueno to make way for the new building and its grounds. Foreign visitors had previously been housed in the
Enryōkan, a building originally erected by the
Tokugawa shogunate as part of a training school for naval cadets. Despite attempts at modernization, the older building was ultimately deemed unsatisfactory for housing foreign dignitaries.
Construction ) Conder received a commission to design a new structure in 1880, and building work started in 1881. Conder borrowed from the
French Renaissance style, and used a
Mansard roof in his design, which also incorporated an arched portico with columns. However, Conder's wish to put Japanese elements in the design was overruled, although he claimed to have included "pseudo-Saracenic" features. Only the garden, which used pine trees, stone lanterns and ponds, was in the Japanese style. Difficulties were encountered in construction which caused the original budget of 100,000
yen to expand to 180,000 yen before construction was completed. In contrast, the
Foreign Ministry building cost only 40,000 yen to construct. The building was officially opened on 28 November 1883 with a gala to which 1200 guests were invited, including
nobles, bureaucrats and foreign diplomats, presided over by Inoue and his wife Takeko.
The Rokumeikan era Inoue commissioned the structure as a five-star hotel for European and American diplomats and travelers. depicting dancing at the Rokumeikan. The woman playing the piano on the right is thought to be
Uryū Shigeko. The Rokumeikan served elaborate banquets, with menus written in
French. In the ballroom, Japanese gentlemen in
evening dress imported from tailors in
London danced the
waltz,
polka,
quadrille, and
mazurka with Japanese ladies dressed in the latest
Parisian fashions to the latest European songs played by an Army or Navy band. Foreign residents of Tokyo were hired as dancing tutors. Likewise, the noted French artist
Georges Ferdinand Bigot published a
cartoon depicting a stylishly dressed Japanese man and woman admiring themselves in a mirror, but the reflection was that of a pair of monkeys. The liberal
Freedom and People's Rights Movement also criticized the Rokumeikan as expensive, tax-funded deference to Europeans and Americans. The Rokumeikan building was sold in 1890, to an association of Japan's
kazoku peerage. 1897, Conder was called in to repair the building and make additional alterations. It was used by the Peers' Club (
Kazoku Kaikan) for the next few decades. The building was demolished in 1941. Its destruction disturbed the architect
Taniguchi Yoshirō and eventually led him to create the
Meiji-mura museum in 1965 for the preservation of Meiji-period buildings. ==Name==