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The Rokumeikan (lit. "Deer Cry Pavilion"), designed by [[Josiah Conder]] and completed in [[1883]], was the premier location where the [[Meiji government]] provided lodgings for prominent foreign guests (including royals and heads of state). It also served, variously, as restaurant, event venue, concert hall, private club, or as a place for lessons in Western etiquette and ballroom dance, as well as in other roles depending on the occasion. Though chiefly known as the site of various interactions with Westerners, the Rokumeikan was also the site of numerous more everyday meetings, dinners, and receptions attended chiefly or exclusively by Japanese elites.

The Rokumeikan (lit. "Deer Cry Pavilion"), designed by [[Josiah Conder]] and completed in [[1883]], was the premier location where the [[Meiji government]] provided lodgings for prominent foreign guests (including royals and heads of state). It also served, variously, as restaurant, event venue, concert hall, private club, or as a place for lessons in Western etiquette and ballroom dance, as well as in other roles depending on the occasion. Though chiefly known as the site of various interactions with Westerners, the Rokumeikan was also the site of numerous more everyday meetings, dinners, and receptions attended chiefly or exclusively by Japanese elites.

It was preceded in that role by the [[Enryokan|Enryôkan]], a wooden structure in Western style built somewhat hastily in [[1869]] on the grounds of the [[Hama Detached Palace]] (''Hama rikyû'') to house [[Prince Alfred]], second son of [[Queen Victoria]], who in that year became the first British royal to visit Japan.<ref>[[Sir Hugh Cortazzi]], ''Royal Visits to Japan in the Meiji Period, 1868-1912'', in ''Collected Writings of Sir Hugh Cortazzi'', Edition Synapse (2000), 103.</ref> The Enryôkan also housed [[Ulysses S. Grant]] and his wife in [[1879]] and King [[Kalakaua]] of Hawaii in [[1881]],<ref>Richard Greer (ed.), "The Royal Tourist - Kalakaua's Letters Home from Tokio to London," ''Hawaiian Journal of History'' 5 (1971), 76.<br>Richard T. Chang, "General Grant’s 1879 Visit to Japan," ''Monumenta Nipponica'' 24:4 (1969), 373.</ref> among others, before being replaced in its function by the Rokumeikan. Much of the Western-style furniture and other furnishings were removed from the Enryôkan to the Rokumeikan at that time,<ref>Finn, 233.</ref> which was built just outside the Imperial Palace compound, but within the Yamashitamon (Yamashita Gate), on grounds which had previously been the site of a secondary residence of the [[Shimazu clan]] of [[Satsuma han]].<ref>Ichioka Masakazu, ''[[Tokugawa seiseiroku]]'', 1889, reprinted Tokyo: Heibonsha (1989), 29.</ref>

It was preceded in that role by the [[Enryokan|Enryôkan]], a wooden structure in Western style built somewhat hastily in [[1869]] on the grounds of the [[Hama Detached Palace]] (''Hama rikyû'') to house [[Prince Alfred]], second son of [[Queen Victoria]], who in that year became the first British royal to visit Japan.<ref>[[Sir Hugh Cortazzi]], ''Royal Visits to Japan in the Meiji Period, 1868-1912'', in ''Collected Writings of Sir Hugh Cortazzi'', Edition Synapse (2000), 103.</ref> The Enryôkan also housed [[Ulysses S. Grant]] and his wife in [[1879]] and King [[Kalakaua]] of Hawaii in [[1881]],<ref>Richard Greer (ed.), "The Royal Tourist - Kalakaua's Letters Home from Tokio to London," ''Hawaiian Journal of History'' 5 (1971), 76.<br>Richard T. Chang, "General Grant’s 1879 Visit to Japan," ''Monumenta Nipponica'' 24:4 (1969), 373.</ref> among others, before being replaced in its function by the Rokumeikan. Much of the Western-style furniture and other furnishings were removed from the Enryôkan to the Rokumeikan at that time,<ref>Finn, 233.</ref> which was built just outside the Imperial Palace compound, but within the Yamashitamon (Yamashita Gate), on grounds which had previously been the site of the [[Satsuma_Edo_mansion#Sakurada_Mansion|Soto-Sakurada residence]] of the [[Shimazu clan]] of [[Satsuma han]].<ref>Ichioka Masakazu, ''[[Tokugawa seiseiroku]]'', 1889, reprinted Tokyo: Heibonsha (1989), 29.; Takatsu Takashi 高津孝, ""Machi aruki Ryûkyûjin gyôretsu to Edo no machi" 「街歩き　琉球人行列と江戸の町」. ''Nihon kinsei seikatsu ehiki: Ryûkyûjin gyôretsu to Edo hen'' 日本近世生活絵引：琉球人行列と江戸編、Research Center for Nonwritten Cultural Materials, Institute for the Study of Japanese Folk Culture, Kanagawa University 神奈川大学日本常民文化研究所非文字資料研究センター (2020), 204.</ref>

The Rokumeikan project got its start when Conder was approached in [[1880]] by Foreign Minister [[Inoue Kaoru]] to design a space for the Japanese government to entertain Western visitors in Western style. Inoue would remain actively involved in the design, and other aspects of the project, throughout its construction; he attempted, though not entirely successfully, to guide Conder into designing something more fully Western in style, without such "Saracenic" influences as Conder ended up including. It was also Inoue who approved the name "Rokumeikan," which did not appear on any signage on the building, but which was shown in gaslights at the hall's opening ceremonies on November 28, 1883.

The Rokumeikan project got its start when Conder was approached in [[1880]] by Foreign Minister [[Inoue Kaoru]] to design a space for the Japanese government to entertain Western visitors in Western style. Inoue would remain actively involved in the design, and other aspects of the project, throughout its construction; he attempted, though not entirely successfully, to guide Conder into designing something more fully Western in style, without such "Saracenic" influences as Conder ended up including. It was also Inoue who approved the name "Rokumeikan," which did not appear on any signage on the building, but which was shown in gaslights at the hall's opening ceremonies on November 28, 1883.