He succeeded to the throne when he was young, then he experienced Taiseihokan (the return of political power to the Emperor by the Tokugawa Shogunate), Oseifukko (the restoration of Imperial rule), the Boshin War, the Meiji Restoration, the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, difficult times from the last days of the bakufu era through to the Meiji period, and he was respected by the nation as the leader of the modern Japanese nation and a symbol, as a sovereign.
若年で即位して以来、大政奉還、王政復古と戊辰戦争、明治維新、日清戦争、日露戦争など、激動の幕末から明治時代を経験し、明治新政府、近代国家日本の指導者、象徴として、絶対君主として国民から畏敬された。