Emperor of Japan from 1867 to 1912, originally named Sachinomiya Mutsuhito. The name "Meiji" literally means "enlightened rule." Meiji became the sovereign ruler of Japan following the overthrow of Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu by members of the sonno-joi movement, in what is now known as the Meiji Restoration.

He was born in Kyoto on November 3, 1852, and had a child out of wedlock with one Yanagiwara Naruko. The boy's name was Yoshihito, and after becoming emperor himself, he took the name Taisho. Young Mutsuhito then had four daughters out of wedlock with a woman named Sono Sachiko, and finally married Ichijo Haruko in 1867, with whom he conceived Princes Michihito, Yukihito, and Teruhito.

Unlike modern emperors (e.g. Showa), exact details of Meiji's life are hard to come by: he was shielded from the outside world by the historically secretive Imperial Court. His name, however, is associated with Japan's industrialization and entry into the Western world, and is found everywhere in Japanese society today: Meiji chocolate bars, Meiji Gakuin University, etc.

He died in 1912, and rule was passed on to his son Yoshihito, Emperor Taisho.

The name "Meiji" appears as a single character block in Unicode at hex 337E. It looks like this:

As two characters, it uses hex 660E 6CBB:

明治

To change Meiji years to CE years and vice versa, just use the following table:

Meiji 1 = 1868
Meiji 5 = 1872
Meiji 10 = 1877
Meiji 15 = 1882
Meiji 20 = 1887
Meiji 25 = 1892
Meiji 30 = 1897
Meiji 35 = 1902
Meiji 40 = 1907
Meiji 45 = 1912

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