1872 in Japan

Incumbents

• Emperor: Emperor Meiji
• Empress consort: Empress Shōken

  Events

• date unknown
• *Tokyo National Museum is founded.
• *The Imperial Library is established.
• *Tomioka silk mill, Japan's first modern model silk reeling factory, is established by the government.
• *The Ryukyu Domain is created when the emperor changes the title of Shō Tai, the Ryukyu Kingdom's monarch, to that of a domain head. The former Ryukyu Kingdom thus becomes a han.

  Births

• January 22 - Katai Tayama, novelist
• March 25 - Tōson Shimazaki, writer
• May 2 - Ichiyō Higuchi, writer

  Deaths

• February 10 - Prince Kitashirakawa Satonari, founder of a collateral branch of the Japanese imperial family
• March 28 - Nambu Nobuyuki, 9th and final daimyō of Hachinohe Domain