Meiji Maru

An Iron Ship That Outlived Its Whole Generation

The Meiji Maru (明治丸, also written Meiji-maru) is an iron-hulled auxiliary steam vessel with a three-masted ship rig, preserved on land at the Etchujima campus of Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology in Koto City, Tokyo, completed in Britain in 1874 and designated an Important Cultural Property on 31 May 1978.

The order came from the Ministry of Industry, which needed a tender to service Japan's new lighthouses. The contract went to the Napier yard in Glasgow, and the ship was finished in 1874 and delivered to Yokohama the following year. Iron, not steel: at that moment the world's shipyards were partway through abandoning timber and had not yet standardised on steel plate, which is exactly why the hull now matters.

She was built well above the standard a lighthouse tender required. Contemporaries rated her the equal of a first-class packet, and she carried a saloon and a stateroom, because the same vessel was expected to double as a royal yacht when needed. Emperor Meiji and a long list of senior officials sailed in her.

Two Voyages That Left a Mark on the Map and the Calendar

In 1875 a dispute arose over sovereignty of the Ogasawara Islands, the Pacific archipelago also known in English as the Bonins. The Japanese government put its survey mission aboard the Meiji Maru, and the ship reached the islands ahead of the British vessel sent on the same errand. The islands stayed Japanese. Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology traces a direct line from that arrival to the exclusive economic zone Japan holds today, some 4.47 million square kilometres, of which roughly a third belongs to Ogasawara Village.

The following year the ship acquired a place in the national calendar. During the imperial progress through Tohoku and Hokkaido in 1876, Emperor Meiji boarded at Aomori, called at Hakodate, and reached Yokohama safely on 20 July. That date was adopted in 1941 as Marine Memorial Day, and in 1996 it became Marine Day, one of Japan's public holidays. Most people who take the third Monday of July off have no idea a specific iron ship is behind it.

After roughly twenty years on lighthouse duty the vessel was handed to the Merchant Marine School, a predecessor of the present university, in 1896. For about fifty years after that she sat moored as a training ship, and more than five thousand cadets learned their trade on her decks before the arrangement ended in 1945. She was also a refuge twice over, taking in displaced residents after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and again after the Tokyo air raids of 1945.

Why the Designation Came, and What You Can See Now

The designation of 31 May 1978, registry number 02062, rested on a simple fact: no other iron ship survives in Japan. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes her as an iron auxiliary-sail steamer from the stage between timber and steel construction, and as the largest iron vessel Japan owned at the time. The agency also notes candidly that she has been altered a good deal over the years, while the frames, the hull itself and the officers' quarters on the middle deck remain close to their original condition. This was the first ship of any kind to be listed as an Important Cultural Property in Japan.

Age caught up with her twice. A repair campaign in 1988 was followed by a full restoration begun in December 2013 by the university together with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, completed in March 2015.

The ship now anchors the Meiji Maru Maritime Museum, which also takes in the Centennial Memorial Hall of 1978, the Meiji Maru Memorial Hall opened in 2016, and a pair of small brick observatories built in 1903. Those two are Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in their own right, and the First Observatory holds Japan's oldest surviving dome-roofed observation room; the Astronomical Society of Japan recognised the pair as Japanese Astronomical Heritage in 2021. The Memorial Hall displays the ship's original build order, the certificate of designation and silver tableware once used on board.

Admission is free and the interior is open, which means the saloon, the cabins and the room used by Emperor Meiji can be seen rather than guessed at. Opening is limited: the usual pattern is Tuesdays, Thursdays and the first and third Saturdays, but the university publishes the schedule month by month and closes at short notice in rough weather, including when rough weather is merely forecast. Booking is not required for individuals, though parties of ten or more should contact the museum beforehand. Volunteer guides are often on hand and will walk visitors around the deck.

Getting there takes about five minutes on foot from Etchujima Station on the JR Keiyo Line, or about twelve minutes from Tsukishima or Monzen-Nakacho on the subway. The ship sits inside a working university campus, so visitors report at the main gate and follow the signs for the museum. There is no visitor parking on site.