The data of the “Meiji-Portraits” portal was originally compiled by Bernd Lepach until 2022 based on his own research and presented on the website of the same name (http://meiji-portraits.de/). Mediated by Erich Pauer, who repeatedly supported Bernd Lepach in his work, and Regine Mathias (Vice-President "Études Japonaises", Centre Européen d'Études Japonaises d'Alsace (CEEJA)) the Specialist Information Service Asia (FID Asia) took over this data and stored it. Its transformation into the present website took place in 2025 as part of the work package “SOLR as a Service” during the project phase 2025-2027 of the FID Asia. We would like to thank Christine and Bernd Lepach (Leipzig) for their excellent cooperation and Erich Pauer and Regine Mathias for their valuable support!
The introductory text below by Bernd Lepach was adopted in a revised form, whereas the chronology and the bibliography correspond completely to the original. The editing of the data concerning persons and companies (including people with names in Japanese writing) presented here was solely the responsibility of Bernd Lepach. The originals of the letters, stamps and postcards used are in the private collection of the Lepach couple.
The project Meiji-Portraits presented here aims to register all persons who have influenced the Meiji era in Japan.
After a seclusion policy of more than 200 years the so-called "Meiji Restoration" of 1868 had to organize the political, economical and scientific-technical development of Japan. This task was to be realized by two ways:
The education and training took place in almost all fields with the emphases on medicine, education, armed forces, establishing the railway and telephone systems, urban development, electrification, judiciary, financial economy, architecture, geology and art, to mention only some. The introduced measures proved to be right - after only approximately 30 years Japan belonged to the leading World Powers.
Of course the fast developing country also attracted humans of all occupational groups, missionaries as well as merchants who looked for their luck in the unknown country and thus influencing the situation in Japan.
For this reason the logo of this website was compiled by the Japanese words 明治人物 = Meiji jinbutsu and 御雇外国人 = o-yatoi gaikokujin, i. e. „Persons of the Meiji Era“ in the top part and „Foreign Employees” in the bottom, in red and somewhat larger, as these persons have dominantly influenced the development in Japan.
The section chronology will give you a historical summary of the situation in Japan at the beginning and during the Meiji era. Some stages will be represented by stamps and postal items picturing impressively the development in the Meiji era.
In the Meiji-Portraits all persons are alphabetically listed, possibly with short curriculum vitae, photo and their corresponding stay in Japan. Prerequisites for the recording are, with a few exceptions, that persons must have lived in Japan during the Meiji era for at least three months. The time-based delimitation couldn’t always be maintained as some activities started before the relevant period, some lasted on afterwards.
The period until 1905, however, formed the main focus for the registration of persons. This date marks the victory of Japan in the Russo-Japanese War and proves definitely Japan to be a World Power. From then onwards the foreign influence diminished continuously.
Besides foreigners also Japanese persons have been considered, especially those who studied abroad. They belong to the pioneers of modern Japan as they contributed substantially to the development of Japan to become one of the leading nations of the world.
Tourists, sailors without Japanese contract, and other persons staying only for a short period in Japan as well as persons from other Asian, Arabian, Middle-and South American countries have not been considered.
An unusual feature of this listing is generated by the inclusion of cards and envelopes. By this means it is attempted to combine the Meiji-Portraits with Philately, the latter being a helpful source of information in this project. Who was the sender or addressee of a letter or card? What has he done in Japan? Corresponding information have been included in the biographies.
Generally, you can say that the collection of "personified documents" represents a side line of philately. Such items are partly very rare, items of firms depending on their size and existence are more frequent than those of individual persons. Nevertheless, this scarceness has nothing to do with a “philatelic value”. Existing correspondences have been marked. This project of biographies also aims to support and improve the judgement of philatelic items.
The explanation of the abbreviations used is either visible directly on mouse over or can be found in the abbreviations section.
In the book “Ooga, Tetsuo (editor); Shiryō o-yatoi gaikokujin [Materials on foreign workers], Unesco Higashi Ajia Bunka Kenkyū Sentā, Tokyo, Shogakukan 1975 (発行者: 相賀徹夫;資料御雇外国人[ユネスコ東アジア文化研究センター編])", there are a large number of "foreign employees" who are solely listed with a name in Japanese (Katakana) writing. Only persons contracted before 1889 have been considered in this book.
A total of 1,940 foreign employees from Europe and the USA are listed; people from China and other Asian countries are not included in this count. Of these 1,940 people, 465 are listed only with names in Katakana writing; 170 people were identified, 84 people were removed from the list because they only worked for a short time or there was too little information for identification. The original names for 211 people could not be determined; these people are listed in this section including the Japanese source text.
The correlation of the foreign persons to their area of activity is established in the section about Meiji-firms. In this part companies established during the Meiji era are listed including their field of activities and employees. Organizations and Clubs have not been considered.
The most important references used for this website are:
You find further helpful literature and websites in the section bibliography.
Words of gratitude go to the following persons:
and many more not mentioned here for their continuous and great assistance in this project.