People of the Meiji period (93 people)

Figures who lived in the Meiji period, in order of birth. Choose a name to follow that life event by event.

• Matsuura Takeshirō Explorer who named Hokkaidō / 1818–1888 (about 70 years)
• Iwakura Tomomi Court noble and statesman / 1825–1883 (about 58 years)
• William S. Clark American educator at Sapporo / 1826–1886 (about 60 years)
• Kanō Hōgai Nihonga painter / 1828–1888 (about 60 years)
• Takahashi Yuichi Western-style painter / 1828–1894 (about 66 years)
• Soejima Taneomi Statesman and calligrapher who handled the Maria Luz incident as foreign minister / 1828–1905 (about 77 years)
• Nishi Amane Enlightenment thinker who coined tetsugaku / 1829–1897 (about 68 years)
• Yuri Kimimasa Fukui financier who drafted the original text of the Charter Oath / 1829–1909 (about 80 years)
• Ōkubo Toshimichi Meiji statesman / 1830–1878 (about 48 years)
• Kawanabe Kyōsai Painter / 1831–1889 (about 58 years)
• Nakamura Masanao Enlightenment thinker who spread the spirit of self-help with Saigoku Risshi Hen / 1832–1891 (about 59 years)
• Terashima Munenori Foreign minister who took on treaty revision, father of Japanese telecommunications / 1832–1893 (about 61 years)
• Kido Takayoshi Statesman from Chōshū / 1833–1877 (about 44 years)
• Ōtori Keisuke Shogunate army commander who fought to Hakodate, later head of the Imperial College of Engineering / 1833–1911 (about 78 years)
• Etō Shinpei Statesman, first Minister of Justice / 1834–1874 (about 40 years)
• Fukuzawa Yukichi Thinker and educator / 1835–1901 (about 66 years)
• Iwasaki Yatarō Industrialist, founder of Mitsubishi / 1835–1885 (about 50 years)
• Maejima Hisoka Founder of Japan's postal system / 1835–1919 (about 84 years)
• Matsukata Masayoshi Finance expert and Prime Minister / 1835–1924 (about 89 years)
• Enomoto Takeaki Shogunate admiral, diplomat, statesman / 1836–1908 (about 72 years)
• Godai Tomoatsu Industrialist, father of Osaka's economy / 1836–1885 (about 49 years)
• Inoue Kaoru Choshu samurai and foreign minister / 1836–1915 (about 79 years)
• Itagaki Taisuke Leader of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement / 1837–1919 (about 82 years)
• Tani Tateki Soldier and politician who held Kumamoto Castle / 1837–1911 (about 74 years)
• Sanjō Sanetomi Court noble of the sonnō jōi camp who became Grand Minister at the top of the Meiji government / 1837–1891 (about 54 years)
• Ōkuma Shigenobu Statesman, founder of Waseda / 1838–1922 (about 84 years)
• Yamagata Aritomo Soldier and statesman / 1838–1922 (about 84 years)
• Edward S. Morse American zoologist / 1838–1925 (about 87 years)
• Goto Shojiro Tosa statesman who pushed the return of power / 1838–1897 (about 59 years)
• Shibusawa Eiichi Industrialist / 1840–1931 (about 91 years)
• Kuroda Kiyotaka Prime minister, head of Hokkaidō development / 1840–1900 (about 60 years)
• Itō Hirobumi First Prime Minister / 1841–1909 (about 68 years)
• Tanaka Shōzō Politician (Ashio pollution) / 1841–1913 (about 72 years)
• Ōyama Iwao Army field marshal, commander of the Manchurian Army / 1842–1916 (about 74 years)
• Niijima Jō Educator, founder of Dōshisha / 1843–1890 (about 47 years)
• Inoue Masaru Railway official called the father of Japan's railways / 1843–1910 (about 67 years)
• Saigō Tsugumichi Younger brother of Saigō Takamori who laid the foundation of the Japanese navy as its first navy minister / 1843–1902 (about 59 years)
• Mutsu Munemitsu Foreign Minister / 1844–1897 (about 53 years)
• Inoue Kowashi Architect of the Meiji state who helped draft the Meiji Constitution and the Rescript on Education / 1844–1895 (about 51 years)
• Niijima Yae Educator and nurse / 1845–1932 (about 87 years)
• Nakae Chōmin Thinker ("Rousseau of the East") / 1847–1901 (about 54 years)
• Mori Arinori First Minister of Education / 1847–1889 (about 42 years)
• Tōgō Heihachirō Naval officer / 1848–1934 (about 86 years)
• Katsura Tarō Prime minister in the Russo-Japanese War era / 1848–1913 (about 65 years)
• Erwin Bälz German physician / 1849–1913 (about 64 years)
• Nogi Maresuke Army general, head of the Peers' School / 1849–1912 (about 63 years)
• Takaki Kanehiro Navy doctor who prevented beriberi by reforming navy meals and founded the Jikei medical school and Japan's first nursing school / 1849–1920 (about 71 years)
• Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo) Writer and scholar of English literature / 1850–1904 (about 54 years)
• Hoshi Tōru Plasterer's son who became Speaker of the House and laid foundations for party politics / 1850–1901 (about 51 years)
• Ogino Ginko Japan's first licensed woman doctor / 1851–1913 (about 62 years)
• Isawa Shūji Educator who spread school songs and laid the foundations of music education in Japan / 1851–1917 (about 66 years)
• Takamura Kōun Sculptor / 1852–1934 (about 82 years)
• Kodama Gentarō Army general, chief of staff of the Manchurian Army / 1852–1906 (about 54 years)
• Josiah Conder British architect called the father of modern Japanese architecture / 1852–1920 (about 68 years)
• Kitasato Shibasaburō Physician and bacteriologist / 1853–1931 (about 78 years)
• Ernest Fenollosa American philosopher and art historian / 1853–1908 (about 55 years)
• Takamine Jōkichi Chemist and entrepreneur / 1854–1922 (about 68 years)
• Shimoda Utako Educator of women / 1854–1936 (about 82 years)
• Komura Jutarō Foreign Minister / 1855–1911 (about 56 years)
• Ueki Emori Freedom and People's Rights thinker who wrote the most democratic private constitution draft / 1857–1892 (about 35 years)
• Mikimoto Kōkichi Entrepreneur of cultured pearls / 1858–1954 (about 96 years)
• Tsubouchi Shōyō Novelist, playwright and translator / 1859–1935 (about 76 years)
• Kanō Jigorō Founder of judo, educator / 1860–1938 (about 78 years)
• Ōyama Sutematsu Advocate of women's education and nursing / 1860–1919 (about 59 years)
• Uchimura Kanzō Christian thinker / 1861–1930 (about 69 years)
• Tanabe Sakurō Civil engineer who built the Lake Biwa Canal and Japan's first commercial hydroelectric plant / 1861–1944 (about 83 years)
• Mori Ōgai Writer and army surgeon / 1862–1922 (about 60 years)
• Nitobe Inazō Educator and internationalist / 1862–1933 (about 71 years)
• Okakura Kakuzō (Tenshin) Art leader and thinker / 1863–1913 (about 50 years)
• Tsuda Umeko Educator / 1864–1929 (about 65 years)
• Futabatei Shimei Novelist and translator / 1864–1909 (about 45 years)
• Kawakami Otojirō Actor and impresario / 1864–1911 (about 47 years)
• Kuroda Seiki Western-style painter / 1866–1924 (about 58 years)
• Natsume Sōseki Novelist / 1867–1916 (about 49 years)
• Masaoka Shiki Haiku and tanka poet / 1867–1902 (about 35 years)
• Toyoda Sakichi Inventor of automatic looms / 1867–1930 (about 63 years)
• Kōda Rohan Novelist / 1867–1947 (about 80 years)
• Ozaki Kōyō Novelist / 1868–1903 (about 35 years)
• Yokoyama Taikan Nihonga painter / 1868–1958 (about 90 years)
• Akiyama Saneyuki Naval officer and strategist / 1868–1918 (about 50 years)
• Kitamura Tokoku Pioneer of modern literary criticism who championed love and inner freedom / 1868–1894 (about 26 years)
• Shiga Kiyoshi Bacteriologist, discoverer of dysentery bacillus / 1871–1957 (about 86 years)
• Kunikida Doppo Novelist, poet and editor / 1871–1908 (about 37 years)
• Kōtoku Shūsui Socialist thinker / 1871–1911 (about 40 years)
• Higuchi Ichiyō Novelist / 1872–1896 (about 24 years)
• Shimazaki Tōson Poet and novelist / 1872–1943 (about 71 years)
• Tayama Katai Naturalist novelist known for "The Quilt" / 1872–1930 (about 58 years)
• Hata Sahachirō Bacteriologist who developed Salvarsan, the first effective drug for syphilis, with Ehrlich / 1873–1938 (about 65 years)
• Hishida Shunsō Nihonga painter / 1874–1911 (about 37 years)
• Noguchi Hideyo Physician and bacteriologist / 1876–1928 (about 52 years)
• Yosano Akiko Poet (tanka) / 1878–1942 (about 64 years)
• Taki Rentarō Composer / 1879–1903 (about 24 years)
• Ishikawa Takuboku Tanka poet and poet / 1886–1912 (about 26 years)

Other periods

Yayoi/KofunAsukaNaraHeianKamakuraMuromachiSengoku/Azuchi-MomoyamaEdoMeijiTaishō

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