Using ceremonials such as imperial weddings and funerals as models, T. Fujitani illustrates what visual symbols and rituals reveal about monarchy, nationalism, city planning, discipline, gender, memory, and modernity. Focusing on the Meiji Period (1868-1912), Fujitani brings recent methods of cultural history to a study of modern Japanese nationalism for the first time.

T. Fujitani is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego.

"A clever, cogent, and convincing book which should be read by monarchists and republicans everywhere."—David Cannadine, Times Literary Supplement

"A fascinating and detailed account of the invention of the modern Japanese state through displays of Imperial power and pageantry. . . . A complete blueprint of political manipulation indicating what happened and how modern Japan was, in several senses, created."—Donald Richie, The Japan Times

"A tremendous book. . . . Fujitani brings his skills and insights to bear on a subject crying out to be addressed: namely, the imperial institution and its formative role in the emergence of the modern Japanese nation state."—John Breen, Monumenta Nipponica

"Thoroughly researched, methodologically sophisticated, and elegantly written. . . . All historians of modern Japan should read it. It will emerge as a classic in the field." —Journal of Asian Studies

"An important addition to a body of scholarship showing that the modern Japanese state did not emerge automatically or even easily. By focusing on the casting of imperial artifacts and the assembly of imperial symbolism, Fujitani traces this modernity-making process to the very center of the new culture. His analysis is one from which scholars and advanced students will learn much."—History

"This book demonstrates that many of the symbols, beliefs and practices that ‘the Japanese people take for granted’ today date back no further than the Meiji Period (1868-1912). Indeed, at the time of the Meiji Restoration of 1868, most Japanese did not even know of the emperor’s existence. . . . Splendid Monarchy is an exercise in remembering the invention of the Japanese imperial institution in modern times. . . . Fujitani’s approach sheds light on concepts such as nationalism, modernity and the formation of national identity in Japan. . . . Although he does not offer any predictions about the future of the imperial institution, he ends enigmatically, pondering the emperor’s ambiguous position today."—Japan Quarterly

"In this excellent study of imperial pageantry in Meiji Japan (1868-1912), Fujitani shows that the leaders of the modern government deliberately constructed both an emperor-centered national past and a set of imperial ceremonies to commemorate present national accomplishments and thus forged an identity between the common people and the state. . . . Throughout the book Fujitani addresses the existing English and Japanese historiography and invokes a wide range of theorists, including Foucault and Geertz, to illuminate the Japanese experience of modernity. The sophisticated analysis is nevertheless very readable."—Choice