The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were the epoch of geographical societies. They contributed to promoting the scholarly study of physical and human geography and assisted in the institutionalisation of academic geography. Recent critical studies have examined the interrelationships between geographical societies and nationalism and/or imperialism in Western countries or their colonies. This chapter examines the Tokyo Geographical Society (Tokyo Chigaku Kyokai—TGS; founded 1879), using both Japanese and foreign historical sources and literature. While avoiding sociopolitical reductionism and methodological nationalism, particular attention is paid to the national and international contexts in which the TGS’s multifaceted activities unfolded. The founders of the TGS, then serving as diplomats or military officers in the Meiji government, felt that domestic and foreign geographical knowledge was indispensable for both national development and overseas expansion. The TGS’s scholarly activities were largely in harmony with the polity of Imperial Japan as an emerging nation-empire. On the other hand, the term chigaku in its name was chosen to reference the new world of Western scientific knowledge on primarily physical but also human geography. The TGS was never isolated from the West or the worldwide network of geographical societies. Its ideas and practices can be understood today as hybrid undertakings, where nationalism, imperialism, and scholarly pursuits were intertwined in complex and inseparable ways.