Who is Emperor Meiji from Kokoro and what is their importance?

Emperor Meiji does not physically appear in the novel, but his illness has an altering affect on the constitutions of Soseki's father and Sensei. Emperor Meiji is the ruler of Japan, and both Sensei and Soseki's father spent their lifetimes under his reign. When it is announced that Emperor Meiji suffers the same illness as Soseki's father, his father's illness begins to quickly overtake him. Emperor Meiji succumbs to his kidney ailment and dies, leaving a generation which includes Sensei and Soseki's father, feeling displaced.