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*''Japanese'': 鹿鳴館 ''(Rokumeikan)''
*''Japanese'': 鹿鳴館 ''(Rokumeikan)''
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, or private club, as well as in other roles depending on the occasion.
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.
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>
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>
The original plans for the Rokumeikan have been lost, but numerous photographs, floorplans, and written descriptions survive, along with some pieces of the structure itself. The ground floor consisted chiefly of dining rooms, smoking rooms, a library, and a billiard hall. The main staircase was carved in wood and supported by Corinthian columns. The second floor housed salons, bedroom suites, and a ballroom, the two floors combined covering roughly 15,000 square feet of floor space.
The original plans for the Rokumeikan have been lost, but numerous photographs, floorplans, and written descriptions survive, along with some pieces of the structure itself. The ground floor consisted chiefly of dining rooms, smoking rooms, a library, and a billiard hall. The main staircase was carved in wood and supported by Corinthian columns. The second floor housed salons, bedroom suites, and a ballroom, the two floors combined covering roughly 15,000 square feet of floor space.
Construction began in January [[1881]], and was completed in July 1883. It is said to have perhaps cost as much as 180,000 [[yen]], a very sizable sum, but still quite a bit less than certain other projects of the time, such as the palace Conder designed for [[Prince Arisugawa]], or the 240,000 yen original wooden [[National Diet Building]]. Following its opening that November, the Rokumeikan was not only host to numerous foreign dignitaries, but also to events such as an annual ball held every November 3, in honor of the emperor's birthday, attended by many members of the Imperial family (though typically not by the emperor himself). Balls and parties at the Rokumeikan often attracted as many as one thousand attendees, including high-ranking government ministers and officials, foreign consuls based in [[Yokohama]], business tycoons, and prominent members of the resident foreign community. An additional train was often run following these events, especially for those seeking to return to Yokohama.
Construction began in January [[1881]], and was completed in July 1883. It is said to have perhaps cost as much as 180,000 [[yen]], a very sizable sum, but still quite a bit less than certain other projects of the time, such as the palace Conder designed for [[Prince Arisugawa]], or the 240,000 yen original wooden [[National Diet Building]]. Following its opening that November, the Rokumeikan was not only host to numerous foreign dignitaries, but also to events such as an annual ball held every November 3, in honor of the emperor's birthday, attended by many members of the Imperial family (though typically not by the emperor himself). Balls and parties at the Rokumeikan, many of them held by a Ball Association (''Butôkai'') which emerged specifically around the hall, often attracted as many as one thousand attendees, including high-ranking government ministers and officials, foreign consuls based in [[Yokohama]], business tycoons, and prominent members of the resident foreign community. An additional train was often run following these events, especially for those seeking to return to Yokohama.
Guests were expected to dress in the Western manner (women could wear formal kimono if they wished), and to observe Western manners. Above all, warnings published in the newspapers advised attendees to avoid doing anything which would look bad in the eyes of Westerners. In its observance of Western norms of high society, the Rokumeikan was a symbolic center of a number of social shifts in the Meiji period, including that men were invited (or even expected) to be accompanied by women, in sharp contrast to the sharp divisions in gendered participation in formal events among high ([[samurai]]) society in the Edo period.
Though highly regarded as the center of Western-style upper-class social life in Meiji era Tokyo, the Rokumeikan was frequently described in negative terms by people at the time, especially Western visitors, who found the building disappointing, mediocre, or otherwise inadequate. Many Westerners also commented that they found the social events there boring or even dreary, though it would seem that many of the Japanese visitors must have found the events quite exciting, or else the Rokumeikan would not have the romantic reputation that it does.
Lessons in ballroom dance and Western etiquette, held fairly regularly for a few years, ended in [[1887]], and in [[1890]], the government decided to sell the property; it then became the private "Peers' Club" (''Kizoku kaikan'') of the Peers Association.
The hall is the setting or subject of numerous literary works, including works by Pierre Loti, [[Akutagawa Ryunosuke|Akutagawa Ryûnosuke]], and [[Mishima Yukio]], whose 1956 play ''Rokumeikan'' takes place at a ball held there in November 1886.
==References==
==References==
