1872 Kunisada II Ukiyo-e Triptych of the Tokyo-Yokohama Steam Train

An important ukiyo-e triptych drawn by Kunisada II and engraved by Kokaiya Katsugorō in 1872. It depicts Japan's first modern railway, which opened the same year, on its route between Tokyo and Yokohama.

A Closer Look

This view is focused on the just-opened Shinagawa train station along the line between Tokyo and Yokohama. Yellow boxes label different elements of the train, such as passenger classes in different carriages and various areas of the station, along with a well and storehouse for coal near the station. In the background, boxes name provinces across Tokyo Bay (in the process of being abolished and converted to Chiba Prefecture, one of the many administrative reforms of the early Meiji period). Shinagawa itself appears at the right across the stone bridge over the railway tracks. Aside from the railway, figures in the foreground give a sense of other changes taking place at the time, including new clothing styles, rickshaws, horses and carriages, and steamships on Tokyo Bay in the background, all still novel in Japan. This is one of a group of ukiyo-e prints produced in tandem with the inauguration of the railway (including ones by Hiroshige III and Kunisada III previously sold by us), which emphasize the curiosity of onlookers and broader changes in Japanese society as much as the railway itself.

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. Social upheaval and civil war followed in the wake of this opening, but 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 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 significant financial and political commitment by the new Meiji government. British railway engineer Edmund Morel helped design and plan the railway, including training Japanese railway engineers. However, he did not live to see its completion, as he died 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. Tickets were very expensive for most Japanese, but the line nevertheless proved 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.

Publication History and Census

This view was drawn by Kunisada II (Toyokuni IV) in July 1872 and engraved by Kokaiya Katsugorō (古買屋勝五郎). Although the railway did not open until September of that year, trial service began in May between Shinagawa and Yokohama while Shimbashi Station in Tokyo was being completed.

The sheet on the right displays a different coloration than the middle and left sheet, likely indicating that this panel of the original woodblock set was printed at a later date, a fairly common practice in the commercialized world of ukiyo-e prints, especially in the early Meiji period. That being said, most other examples we have seen of this triptych include variations between the rightmost panel and the other two, suggesting consistency across surviving examples.

This view is rare; we only note institutional holdings with the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies and the Minato City Local History Museum.