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{{Short description|Building in Tokyo, Japan (1883–1941)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox building
| name = Rokumeikan
| native_name = {{IPA|ja|ɾo.kɯ.meꜜi.kaɴ, -meꜜː-}}
| image = Tokyo-Rokumeikan-zenmen-1883-1900.jpg
| image_alt =
| image_size =
| caption = The ''Rokumeikan'' around 1883–1900, Tokyo
| former_names =
| alternate_names =
| map_type =
| map_alt =
| map_caption =
| building_type = Residence
| architectural_style = [[French Renaissance architecture|French Renaissance]]
| structural_system =
| cost = 40,000 yen
| location = [[Chiyoda-ku]],[[Tokyo]]
| address = 1-1-7, Uchisaiwaicho
| owner =
| location_country = Japan
| coordinates = {{coord|35.67194694091169|139.75769752532517|display=inline}}
| altitude =
| start_date = 1881
| completion_date = 1883
| inauguration_date = 28 November 1883
| demolition_date = 1941
| height =
| diameter =
| other_dimensions =
| floor_count = 2
| floor_area =
| architect = [[Josiah Conder (architect)|Josiah Conder]]
| awards =
| url =
| references =
}}

{{Italic title|reason=[[:Category:Japanese words and phrases]]}}

The {{nihongo|'''''Rokumeikan'''''|鹿鳴館||{{IPA|ja|ɾo.kɯ.meꜜi.kaɴ, -meꜜː-}}<ref>{{cite book|script-title=ja:NHK日本語発音アクセント新辞典|publisher=NHK Publishing|editor=NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute|date=24 May 2016|lang=ja}}</ref>}} was a large two-story building in [[Tokyo]], completed in 1883, which became a controversial symbol of Westernisation in the [[Meiji period]]. Commissioned for the housing of foreign guests by the [[Foreign Minister of Japan|Foreign Minister]] [[Inoue Kaoru]], it was designed by British architect [[Josiah Conder (architect)|Josiah Conder]], a prominent [[o-yatoi gaikokujin|Western adviser]] working in Japan.

Although the ''Rokumeikan'''s heyday was brief, it became famous for its parties and balls, which introduced many high-ranking Japanese to Western manners for the first time, and it is still a fixture in the cultural memory of Japan. It was, however, largely used for the accommodation of guests of the government, and for meetings between Japanese who had already lived abroad.

==History==
===Background===
The site of the Rokumeikan was in [[Hibiya]], near the [[Kokyo|Imperial Palace]] on land which had formerly been used as an arsenal for the [[Satsuma han|Satsuma domain]]. After the [[Meiji restoration]], in 1872 the land became the headquarters of the secretariat charged with preparations for the [[Weltausstellung 1873 Wien|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, Tokyo|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 building was old and deemed no longer considered satisfactory for housing foreign dignitaries.

===Construction===
[[File:Rokumeikan_1399.JPG|thumb|Rokumeikan model ([[Edo-Tokyo Museum]])]]
Conder received a commission to design a new structure<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Driscoll |first=Mark W. |title=The Whites are Enemies of Heaven: Climate Caucasianism and Asian Ecological Protection |date=2020 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |isbn=978-1-4780-1121-7 |location=Durham}}</ref>{{Rp|page=245}} 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 [[Gaimusho|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 [[kazoku|nobles]], bureaucrats and foreign diplomats, presided over by Inoue and his wife Takeko.<ref name="Keene 1912, pp 391-395">Keene, Emperor Of Japan: Meiji And His World, 1852-1912, pp 391-395. </ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rösch |first=Felix |date=2025-06-01 |title=Sociability, Emotions, and Encounters with the Uncommon Other: World-Making at the Rokumeikan |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/ips/olaf009 |journal=International Political Sociology |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=olaf009 |doi=10.1093/ips/olaf009 |issn=1749-5679|doi-access=free }}</ref>

===The Rokumeikan era===
Inoue commissioned the structure as a five-star hotel for European and American diplomats and travelers.<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|page=245}} He hoped that they would be more inclined to regard Japan as an equal in terms of “civilization” in European minds, which would facilitate renegotiation of the [[Unequal Treaties]], abolition of [[extraterritoriality]] and would hasten Japan's entry as an equal in the ranks of the imperial powers.<ref>Hane, Modern Japan: A Historical Survey, pp116</ref>
[[File:Chikamatsu Kiken buto no ryakuke.jpg|thumb|500px|Ukiyoe by [[Toyohara Chikanobu]] depicting dancing at the Rokumeikan. The woman playing the piano on the right is thought to be [[Uryū Shigeko]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.janicenimura.com/photo-gallery/credits/ |title=Photo Gallery Credits |last=Nimura |first=Janice P. |author-link=Janice P. Nimura |language=en |access-date=2020-03-07}}</ref>]]
The Rokumeikan served elaborate banquets, with menus written in [[French language|French]]. In the ballroom, Japanese gentlemen in [[Black tie|evening dress]] imported from tailors in [[London]] danced the [[waltz]], [[polka]], [[quadrille]], and [[mazurka]] with Japanese ladies dressed in the latest [[evening gown|Parisian fashion]]s to the latest European songs played by an Army or Navy band. Foreign residents of Tokyo were hired as dancing tutors.<ref name="Keene 1912, pp 391-395"/>

The results were mixed. Although the highly conspicuous Western building was praised by some visitors, its concept was deplored by many others as tasteless imitation. [[Pierre Loti]], who arrived in Japan in 1886, compared the building (in ''Japoneries d'Automne,'' 1889), to a mediocre casino in a French spa town, and the European-style ball to a “monkey show”.<ref>Buruma, Inventing Japan: 1853-1964, pp 46
</ref> 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.<ref name="Keene 1912, pp 391-395"/>

Japanese conservatives were outraged by what they perceived to be the degeneration of traditional morals, especially by the close proximity between men and women during dances, linked rising taxes with the supposed dissipation and self-indulgence of the government. Reports and gossip of scandalous behavior by high-ranking officials (although the most notorious took place at private residences, not at the Rokumeikan), added to the controversy.<ref>Hane, Modern Japan: A Historical Survey, pp146</ref>

The [[Freedom and People's Rights Movement|Autonomy and People's Rights Movement]] criticized the Rokumeikan as expensive, tax-funded deference to Europeans and Americans.<ref name=":6" />{{Rp|page=245}}

The failure of "Rokumeikan diplomacy" to achieve its desired goal of treaties revised in Japan's favor led eventually to the discrediting of Inoue, who resigned in 1887.

===Later years===
In 1890, the [[Imperial Hotel, Tokyo|Imperial Hotel]] opened near the Rokumeikan (again with the involvement of Inoue), and was on a grander scale. The opening of the hotel eliminated the need for the Rokumeikan as a residence for foreign visitors. The banquets and balls continued, and the nativist reaction did not slow the construction of Western-style buildings in Tokyo, but with the increasing westernization of Japan, a growing sense of cultural nationalism, and the eventual elimination of the Unequal Treaties in 1899, the Rokumeikan steadily diminished in importance.<ref name="Lebra pp189">Lebra, Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese, pp189</ref>

The Rokumeikan building was sold in 1890, to an association for ''[[kazoku]]'' peerage of Japan.<ref name="Lebra pp189"/> The building was severely damaged in the [[1894 Tokyo earthquake]], the high cost of repairs contributing to a decline in use of the building.<ref>{{cite book|last1=McKay|first1=Alexander|title=Scottish Samurai|date=2012|publisher=Canongate Press Ltd|location=Edinburgh|isbn=978-0-85786-730-8|page=Chapter 24|edition=Digital}}</ref> 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.<ref>Many different dates are given, ranging from 1935 to 1945 (which was when the large ornamental gate was destroyed by fire-bombing); the 1941 date comes from Finn's article (2006).</ref>

The destruction of the building disturbed the architect [[Taniguchi Yoshirō]] and eventually led him to create the ''[[Meiji Mura]]'' for the preservation of Meiji period buildings.

==Name==
The name “Rokumeikan” comes from a Chinese classic, the ''[[Shi Jing]]'' ("Book of Songs"), and refers to the benefits of hospitality. The 161st ode is entitled ''Lù Míng'', 鹿鳴, which is read in Japanese as ''rokumei''. It was chosen by {{ill|Nakai Hiroshi (governor of Kyoto prefecture)|lt=Nakai Hiromu|qid=Q11362917}}, the first husband of Inoue's wife Takeko.

{{Quote|With pleased sounds the deer call to one another, eating the celery of the fields. [...] I have here admirable guests; whose virtuous fame is grandly brilliant. They show the people not to be mean; the officers have in them a pattern and model.}}

The name is often translated as "Deer Cry Pavilion", and in older books the translation "Hall of the Baying Stag" is given.

Once purchased by The Peer's Club (group), the building was renamed "The Peer's Club", but also went by the names ''Nobles' Club'' and ''Peerage Club''.<ref>{{cite book | last = Terry | first = Thomas
| title = Terry's Japanese Empire: Including Korea and Formosa, with Chapters on Manchuria, the Trans-Siberian Railway, and the Chief Ocean Routes to Japan; a Guidebook for Travelers; with 8 Specially Drawn Maps and 21 Plans | publisher = Houghton Mifflin company | year = 1914 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/terrysjapanesee00terrgoog/page/n415 115], 137 | url = https://archive.org/details/terrysjapanesee00terrgoog| quote = Peers Club. }}</ref>

==Allusions in literature==
The Rokumeikan is frequently mentioned in Japanese literature, for example
*''[[Naomi (novel)|Chijin no ai]]'' ("Naomi", 1924), a novel by [[Tanizaki Jun'ichirō]]
*''Butokai'' ("The Ball", 1920), a short story by [[Akutagawa Ryūnosuke]], retelling Loti's account
*''[[Rokumeikan (play)|Rokumeikan]]'' (1956), a play by [[Mishima Yukio]], and based on it
**''Rokumeikan'' (1986), a film
**''Rokumeikan'' (2008), a television special starring [[Masakazu Tamura]] and [[Hitomi Kuroki]]
*''[[Lady Snowblood (manga)|Lady Snowblood]]'', a manga written by [[Kazuo Koike]] (chapter 5 of the first volume: "Rokumeikan Murder Panorama")
*''[[Aoi Hana]]'', a manga written by [[Takako Shimura]] who the characters act out the play ''[[Rokumeikan (play)|Rokumeikan]]''

The Roumeikan is mentioned in The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley.

==Location==
The site of the Rokumeikan is in [[Chiyoda, Tokyo|Chiyoda-ku]], [[Uchisaiwaichō]] 1-chome. There is a plaque in front of the NBF Hibiya Building (formerly the [[Yamato Life Insurance Company]]).

==References==
* Finn, Dallas. "Reassessing the Rokumeikan." From ''Challenging past and present: the metamorphosis of nineteenth-century Japanese art'', edited by Ellen P. Conant. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2006.
* Watanabe Toshio. "Josiah Conder's ''Rokumeikan'': architecture and national representation in Meiji Japan." ''Art Journal'', 22 September 1996.
* Tomita Hitoshi. ''Rokumeikan: Giseiyoka no sekai'' ("Deer Cry Pavilion: The world of pseudo-Westernization") Tokyo: Hakusuisha, 1984.
* Mehl, Margaret. "Dancing at the Rokumeikan: a new role for women?" From ''Japanese women emerging from subservience, 1868-1945'', edited by Hiroko Tomida and Gordon Daniels. Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental, 2005.
*{{cite book
| last = Barr
| first = Pat
| year = 1989
| title = The Deer Cry Pavilion: A Story of Westerners in Japan, 1868-1905
| publisher = Penguin (non classic)
| isbn = 0-14-009578-0
| url = https://archive.org/details/deercrypavilions0000barr
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Buruma
| first = Ian
| author-link = Ian Buruma
| year = 2004
| title = Inventing Japan: 1853-1964
| publisher = Modern Library
| isbn = 0-8129-7286-4
| url-access = registration
| url = https://archive.org/details/inventingjapan00ianb
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Keene
| first = Donald
| author-link = Donald Keene
| year = 2005
| title = Emperor Of Japan: Meiji And His World, 1852-1912
| publisher = Columbia University Press
| isbn = 0-231-12341-8
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Hane
| first = Mikiso
| year = 2001
| title = Modern Japan: A Historical Survey
| publisher = Westview Press
| isbn = 0-8133-3756-9
| url = https://archive.org/details/modernjapanhisto00hane_0
}}
*{{cite book
| last = Lebra
| first = Takie Sugiyama
| author-link = Takie Lebra
| year = 1995
| title = Above the Clouds: Status Culture of the Modern Japanese Nobility
| publisher = University of California Press
| isbn = 0-520-07602-8
}}
*Felix Rösch (2025). Sociability, Emotions, and Encounters with the Uncommon Other: World-Making at the Rokumeikan, ''International Political Sociology'' 19 (2): olaf009, <nowiki>https://doi.org/10.1093/ips/olaf009</nowiki>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* National Diet Library website
**[https://web.archive.org/web/20071221233514/http://www.ndl.go.jp/scenery/e/column/before-rokumeikan.html Before Rokumeikan]
**[http://www.ndl.go.jp/scenery/e/data/185/index.html Rokumeikan in 1894]
**[http://www.ndl.go.jp/scenery/e/data/177/index.html Peers Club interior, 1911]

{{Authority control}}
{{Coord|35.671804|139.757792|format=dms|display=title|type:landmark_region:JP_scale:10000}}

[[Category:Defunct hotels in Japan]]
[[Category:French Renaissance Revival architecture]]
[[Category:Demolished buildings and structures in Tokyo]]
[[Category:Former buildings and structures in Japan]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Chiyoda, Tokyo]]
[[Category:Buildings of the Meiji era]]
[[Category:Residential buildings completed in 1883]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures demolished in 1941]]

Rokumeikan - Revision history

imported>OAbot: Open access bot: doi updated in citation with #oabot.