1873 Kunsada III Ukiyo-e Triptych View of Ginza, Tokyo-Yokohama Steam Train

A curious 1873 ukiyo-e triptych produced by Kunisada III depicting the Tokyo-Yokohama steam train and Shimbashi Station, Japan's first modern railway and Tokyo's first train station, respectively. The view also presents the neighborhood of Ginza, rebuilt following a fire the previous year, as a showpiece of modernization by the Meiji government.

A Closer Look

This view is divided into two 'tiers' with the top tier displaying a train leaving Tokyo's Victorian-style Shimbashi Station, bound for Yokohama. The bottom tier depicts the Ginza neighborhood of central Tokyo, which was similarly rebuilt in a Victorian British style after the entire neighborhood burned down in a fire in 1872. Aside from architecture and technology, the effects of Western influence can be seen in the clothing of some (though not nearly all) people, rickshaws, horses, and carriages. The two black-clad, stick-wielding figures at right are likely police officers; at this time, Japan was transitioning from a samurai-led force to a modern, centralized police force modeled on that of France and Prussia.

Japan's First Modern Railway

Although Japan had already seen dramatic changes in the years since the forcible opening of the country to foreign trade in 1859, throughout the 1860s, the pace of change quickened and spread out from relative isolation in treaty ports like Yokohama. Although accompanied by social upheaval and civil war, this period was also exhilarating and dynamic. With the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the central government encouraged the rapid adoption and domestication of foreign technologies, including railways. Foreign engineers and advisors brought in by the government advised the construction of a railway between Tokyo and Yokohama, which hitherto required taking the coastal Tokaido road or traveling by boat.

Although earlier foreign travelers had brought model locomotives to Japan and a short demonstration line was built in Nagasaki in 1868, the line between Tokyo and Yokohama was the country's first true railway, as well as a major financial and political commitment by the new Meiji government. British railway engineer Edmund Morel helped to design and plan the railway, including training Japanese railway engineers. Unfortunately, he did not live to see its completion, dying of tuberculosis in November 1871 in Yokohama. Built on a narrow 'Cape gauge' (3 feet 6 inches) as opposed to the wider 'Stephenson gauge' (now known as standard gauge), the Tokyo-Yokohama line terminated at Shimbashi Station in Tokyo. Though tickets were very expensive for most Japanese, the line nevertheless proved to be extremely popular, further propelling Japan's breakneck modernization and setting a model used for decades as Japan evolved into one of the world's premier railway nations.

Ginza - Tokyo's Fifth Avenue

Incidentally, Shimbashi Station was located near the Ginza neighborhood, which was long an important, centrally-located neighborhood in Tokyo (earlier Edo). Its name (銀座), referring to a silver mint there, was well-chosen, hinting at its future wealth and glamor. In 1872, a devastating fire swept through Tokyo and destroyed much of the Ginza area, a common occurrence due to the prevalence of wooden buildings, which were highly susceptible to fire. In response, the newly-ensconced Meiji government decided to rebuild Ginza as a model of modernization and Westernization, with wider streets, shopping promenades, and brick or stone buildings that were less fire-prone. British engineers were called in to design the new neighborhood, resulting in an area, nicknamed 'bricktown' (煉瓦街), resembling the poshest neighborhoods of London. Ironically, foreigners disliked the new Ginza, thinking it lacked authenticity.

Meiji Era Tokyo

With the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Tokugawa Shogunate was displaced from Edo, and the Emperor Meiji moved the imperial capital from Kyoto to Edo (renamed Tokyo, 'eastern capital'). The Meiji era was a period of tremendous change in Japan, particularly in cities and in Tokyo, more than any other. New ideas, technologies, and fashions from abroad were sought out and adopted with incredible rapidity and, in the process, were localized to suit Japanese tastes. Building on the foundations of Tokugawa Edo, Meiji-era Tokyo intermingled traditional architecture with styles reminiscent of Victorian London. However, much of Tokyo was destroyed in the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and again during the Second World War, resulting in the mostly Postwar city seen today.

Publication History and Census

This view was drawn by ukiyo-e artist Kunisada III (signed here as Baidō Kunisama (梅堂国政) and published by Hamadaya Tetsugorō (浜田屋鉄五郎). The sheets composing this triptych display variations in coloration between sheets (as on the back of the train and the windows and facades of the buildings) that suggest they may have been printed at different times, perhaps by different printers, a common practice in the commercialized world of ukiyo-e prints, especially in the early Meiji period. That being said, all other examples we have seen of this triptych include the same coloration variation as seen here, indicating consistency across surviving examples. The view is held by the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library and the National Institute of Japanese Literature and is scarce to the market.