[5][6] In his brief survey of pre-Meiji Japanese imperial portraiture, surviving exemplars of which are known at least from the Kamakura period, Donald Keene writes that these "reveal very little individuality", eschewing realism "instead to convey courtly elegance or Buddhist consecration".

[8] The next photographs were taken the following year, in response to a request by the Iwakura Mission, delegates having observed Western diplomats exchanging portraits of their respective heads of state.

[8] Continuing to circulate nevertheless, the 16 April 1878 edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun featured a reported sighting of one hanging in a house of ill-repute in the Yoshiwara district, and it was not until 1898 that the official ban was lifted.

[9] In the meantime, commissioned by Hijikata Hisamoto, Chiossone's 1888 goshin'ei (御真影) (pictured above) had come to be widely distributed in the form of reproductions, not least, though initially only upon request, to schools across the country, where it helped foster "patriotism and loyalty to the emperor".

[5] After a public competition in 1918, Kobayashi Masatsugu's design was the following year selected from the one hundred and fifty-six submissions received, Furuichi Kōi and Itō Chūta numbering amongst the judges.

[4][1] With some amendment by the shrine's building department, construction began in 1919 and ran until 1926, Ōkura Doboku, a legacy firm of what is now Taisei Corporation, starting their work in 1921.

[4][12] This was temporarily suspended due to the Great Kantō earthquake, after which the scaffolding was taken down and temporary barracks built to shelter victims, some 6,400 of whom were accommodated on the site.

[5] Later in 1918 a panel of five began their research trips across Japan, to confirm suitability, document locations, and draft explanatory texts, amongst them Goseda Hōryū [ja], who prepared "provisional paintings".