1870 Hiroshige III Ukiyo-e Triptych of Tsukiji, Tokyo, Meiji Restoration

A lively and even chaotic 1870 ukiyo-e depiction of the Tsukiji neighborhood of Tokyo, drawn by Utagawa Hiroshige III and published by Masadaya Heikichi. It displays the neighborhood just months after it was designated as the foreign residence quarter of Tokyo following the Meiji Restoration, emphasizing the rapid importation of foreign technologies, fashion, and manners.

A Closer Look

This view presents a heady scene with people, animals, and various means of conveyance darting in different directions. The combination of Japanese and Western culture is readily apparent one year after Tsukiji's designation as Tokyo's foreign residence quarter. The figures, seemingly all Japanese, wear a mixture of Western-style and Japanese clothing. The men are clad in Western-style military uniforms, bowler hats and suits, or kimono and other traditional clothing. Some (including one getting drunk in the foreground at left) have sword handles prominently displayed, indicating their status as samurai. Two men in the front at right appear to wear a combination of Japanese and Western-style clothing, including umbrellas. Women similarly wear either Victorian dresses or obi (tied in the back, signifying their status as married women, or in the front, designating courtesans or unmarried women). Along with the combination of cultures, the open mixing of the sexes is a notable feature of the view and of the rapid changes brought by the Meiji Restoration.

Horses, carriages, handcart tricycles, and rickshaws carry people and goods in every direction. Though its origins lie further back in history, the rickshaw, as generally understood, emerged in Meiji Japan and had only been permitted and regulated that same year (1870) by the Meiji government. The larger rickshaw at the right, with men pushing from the rear, is noted as heading to Namamugi (生麦, near Yokohama), an early form of relatively long-distance public transportation that operated like a horsecar or horse-pulled tram. At the center in the foreground is a footman running alongside horses pulling a carriage and shouting at others (including the alcohol drinkers) to get out of the way; his robe has both the kanji for 'horse-drawn carriage' (馬車) and Latin letters.

Several businesses and structures also reflect the new foreign influences in Japan, including a photography studio (鏡真寫) at left (advertising that it takes photographs 'rain or shine') and a stand at left in the foreground serving imported alcohol (舶来酒). The 'hotel' (ホテル) at left is the Hoterukan (also known as Tsukiji Hotel or Edo Hotel), just opened the same year, the first foreign-style hotel in Tokyo that was frequently depicted in woodblock prints before it burned down in 1874. The lighthouse at right in the background is the Shinagawa Lighthouse, the third modern lighthouse built in Japan, designed by French engineer Léonce Verny (1837 - 1908).

Tsukiji

Tsukiji (築地) literally means constructed or reclaimed land, which is exactly what it was, being assembled over decades during the Edo period from land dug out to form Edo's distinctive canal system. In 1869, Tsukiji was designated an area for foreign settlement and trade, effectively forming a treaty port adjacent to Tokyo, from which it was separated by a canal. However, as Yokohama already served a similar function and was opened a decade prior, Tsukiji did not become a boomtown in the same way. Nevertheless, several foreign institutions were set up there immediately, especially missionary schools and later embassies. The area was never particularly popular with foreigners, who preferred Yokohama and other neighborhoods of Tokyo. It played an important role in Japan's navy and naval modernization (perhaps explaining the figures in Western-style military uniforms here), with a shipyard, naval academy, and naval hospital located there. After the Great Kanto Earthquake, Tokyo's main fish market in Nihonbashi, which had burned down, was relocated to Tsukiji, where it remained until 2018. For much of that time, it was the busiest fish market in the world and, though somewhat dingy (as fish markets tend to be), became a major attraction for tourists and foodies. Even after the fish market moved to Toyosu in 2018, the Tsukiji area maintains many renowned seafood and sushi restaurants.

Meiji Era Tokyo

With the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Tokugawa Shogunate was displaced from Edo, and 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, most of Meiji-era Tokyo was destroyed in the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake.

Kaika-e (開化繪)

Kaika-e is the Edo / Tokyo equivalent of the Yokohama-e (橫濱繪) genre, depicting foreigners and foreign technologies in the wake of Japan's forcible opening to the world in the 1850s. The phrase 'kaika' is an abbreviation of bunmei-kaika (文明開化), meaning 'civilization and enlightenment,' a slogan and guiding philosophy of the early Meiji period. Kaika-e became especially popular in the 1870s and were encouraged by the Meiji government as a way of advertising the modernization of the new regime's capital city. As with Yokohama-e, common themes included Western-style or hybrid architecture, clothing, new modes of transportation, and scenes of Japanese and foreigners fraternizing amicably.

Publication History and Census

This ukiyo-e triptych was drawn by Utagawa Hiroshige III and published by Masadaya Heikichi (政田屋平吉) in 1870. It is among several woodblock triptychs depicting Tsukiji published in the early 1870s by various artists, including others by Hiroshige III. The present work is quite scarce, only being noted among the holdings of the Edo-Tokyo Museum and the National Institute of Japanese Literature, and only rarely appearing on the market in Japan.