Meiji Exposition (1907)

(Above:) An Exhibition or Exposition Show, Tokyo Art deco image of the 1907 Meiji Industrial Exposition showing the main gate and a row of exhibition shophouses.

Ueno Park played to the world stage during the Meiji and Taisho eras as the site of numerous expositions and exhibitions. The earliest expo occured in 1877 (at which horse-drawn trolleys were first used in Tokyo), but perhaps the largest, and best remembered, of them was the 1907 Meiji Industrial Exposition.

Coming soon after Japan's victory over Russia in the Russo-Japanese war, the Exposition allowed the country to celebrate its new status as a world power and, at the same time, demonstrate to the Japanese people just how far their nation had progressed since the Restoration just 39 years before.

Among the highlights of the 1907 Exposition were a Ferris Wheel, electric lighting, enclosed swimming pool, and a large water slide that sent passengers in canoe-like craft down its ramp into the water of Shinobazu Pond.