The purpose of this article is not to describe the consequences of the illness of Emperor Meiji on the functioning of Japanese political institutions, but rather to analyse the various problems concerning the manipulation of the imperial body, in the wake of a rapid modernization process characterized by the shift from traditional to Western medicine. In dealing with the Meiji emperor’s health issue and the evolution of the specialized Palace offices, this article studies the intertwinned relationships between the private – hidden – body of the emperor, his public – exposed – body, and his political body as locus of sovereignty. In conclusion, this paper underlines the superiority of this last dimension for the preservation of the monarchy, the legitimacy of which was rooted in the continuity and unicity of the dynasty rather than in any individual and transitory figures of rulers on the throne.