February 3: Meiji Anniversary

Today's "On This Day..." feature for February 3rd on the Wikipedia home page features the anniversary of Emperor Meiji taking the throne in Japan. The "Meiji Restoration" is of course a major historical element in my young adult novel Samurai Shortstop, and precipitates much of the conflict between Toyo, his father, and the new Japan. The picture they feature (shown here) is the one Toyo sees hung on the wall of the ethics lecture hall at the beginning of chapter two.