Emperor Meiji was born on November 3, 1852, in Japan, the sole surviving son of Emperor Kōmei by the lady-in-waiting Nakayama Yoshiko (1834–1907), a daughter of Lord Nakayama Tadayasu, sometime minister of the left (sadaijin) and a scion of the Fujiwara clan.
Crown Prince Mutsuhito acceded to the throne on February 3, 1867 at the age of 14. Later that year, the Japanese era name was changed to Meiji, or “enlightened rule,” which was later used for his posthumous name. This marked the beginning of the tradition of proclaiming one era for the entire reign of an emperor, and posthumously naming him after the era over which he ruled.
The ascension of the Mutsuhito to the throne signified the return of power from the Tokugawa shogunate to the emperor. The Meiji Restoration marked the dissolution of Japanese feudalism and the forging of a new, modern state. Emperor Meiji personally held little political power, but he was a paramount symbol of the unity of Japan. In 1868 he launched the Westernization of Japan by taking the “Charter Oath of Five Principles.” Though he did not actually initiate the reforms, he officially ordered the abolition of the feudal land system in 1871; the creation of a new school system in 1872; the adoption of the cabinet system of government in 1885; the promulgation of the Meiji Constitution in 1889; and the opening of the diet in 1890.
The Meiji emperor himself embodied the imposition of Western innovations and ideas on traditional Japanese culture; he wore Western clothes and ate Western foods. However, he composed over 100,000 poems in the traditional Japanese style; through them one can learn the private thoughts and feelings of this very public man.
The constitution adopted in 1889 created a diet with an upper house selected primarily from the aristocracy, and an elected lower house, to advise the government. A cabinet of close advisors was directly responsible to the emperor but not to the Diet and was considered above politics. In practice, the emperor allowed a group of close advisors, known as the genro, or elder statesmen, to choose premiers. Under the direction of these advisors (including Ito Hirobumi, Yamagata Aritomo, and Inoue Kaoru) Japan became a modern industrial state and demonstrated its military power in the first Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905).
Even under the modernized imperial system, the Emperor was commander-in-chief of both the Army and Navy, and attended formal events in full military dress even from childhood. The rank insignia of his dress uniform went from Second Lieutenant at childhood to Commander-in-Chief after assuming the throne.
Unlike the Navy, the Army at the time did not designate dress formal and regular service uniform. Instead, they used various combinations of uniforms and added or removed decorations depending on the ocassion.
The image corresponds to the Emperor reviewing the troops after the victory in 1895 in the Sino-Japanese War. In the figure it can be seen that the emperor carries, the simple version, of the highest decoration of Japan, the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum. You can also observe, on the left side of the chest, the Order of the Sacred Treasure, established by himself in 1888.