Before Japan was an island overflowing with towering metropolises, it was a quieter place, where thatched rooftops covered the homes and great rolling, green forests filled the horizon.

Imperial Japan looked unlike any place in the world today — certainly the country that now stands on the same ground. It is a place that lives on only in stories and photographs.

These photographs are the best glimpses we have of what life was like in Imperial Japan – photographs from the late 19th century, taken during the Meiji Restoration Era.

[Read the full article at All That Is Interesting.]