1862 Yoshikazu Ukiyo-e Map of Treaty Port Yokohama, Japan

A colorful c. 1862 ukiyo-e map of Yokohama, Japan, by Ichikawa Yoshikazu. It presents the city several years after its opening as a treaty port in 1859, when it was rapidly developing into Japan's main point of trade and cultural interaction with Western powers.

A Closer Look

Oriented towards the southeast, this map covers the recently-opened and bustling treaty port of Yokohama and its environs. The foreign-inhabited area of the city is shaded yellow, with additional foreign warehouses marked with the flags of various Western countries across the water near Kanagawa. Towards the right is the Japanese-inhabited part of the city, with streets and public institutions (such as a theater, 芝居, and a British-built horseracing track, 馬場) noted. Additional residences and offices, including a large government office (陣屋), are indicated on the right. A customs station (運上所) stands prominently near center near the city's two main docks, roughly dividing the foreign and Japanese portions of the city. Temples, cemeteries, neighborhoods, and villages are marked with red boxes containing black text.

Towards top-left is the original fishing village of Yokohama (here as 元町). Near it are three cemeteries, two for 'foreigners' (that is, Westerners, 外國人墓) and one for 'Nanjing people' (南京人墓), which likely refers to any Chinese person and not only natives of the city. Although Chinese traders had been able to reside and conduct business at Nagasaki throughout the Tokugawa period, Yokohama quickly attracted a significant population of Chinese traders. The city has long been home to Japan's largest Chinatown.

Miyozaki - Yokohama's Red-Light District

The compound prominent towards top is Miyozaki (港崎町), a red-light district modeled on Edo's infamous Yoshiwara. It had been arranged during discussions around the Harris Treaty (1858), which opened Yokohama to foreign trade. Miyozaki was meant to preserve the dignity of Japanese women by confining dalliances with foreigners to this single compound (fitting in with a popular approach in the late Tokugawa period for building sequestered quarters for 'immoral' activities). Separated by a wall, moat, and a single large gate, the teahouses (茶屋) and brothels (遊女屋) in this district took on fanciful and, in some cases, suggestive names, such as the 'House of the Rock Turtle' (岩亀樓, the Gankirō, known for providing long-term mistresses to wealthy clients) and 'House of Fifty Bells' (五十鈴屋).

Yokohama - Japan's Gateway to the Outside World

This map is an example of Yokohama-e (橫濱繪), a genre of woodblock prints depicting foreigners and the cultural interactions between Japan and the outside world that took place in Yokohama. Japan reluctantly signed a 'Treaty of Peace and Amity' with the United States in 1854, opening the door for greater foreign presence and influence in Japan. The terms of this 1854 treaty were quite vague. A subsequent treaty, the Treaty of Amity and Commerce (also known as the Harris Treaty), was signed in 1858, opening Japanese ports to foreign trade. Other foreign powers piled into Japan to sign similar treaties stipulating rights for their nationals to trade and reside in certain Japanese ports. The most important of these 'treaty ports' were Nagasaki and Yokohama, the former having been a major port for centuries, the latter much less so.

The foreign powers demanded a port near Edo (Tokyo), understanding that the capital itself was not an option. Yokohama was primarily chosen because the Shogunate opposed the most obvious choice, Kanagawa-juku, a nearby coastal station on the Tōkaidō. Much like Shanghai in China, Yokohama grew rapidly and became the main conduit for the exchange of people, goods, and ideas between Japan and the outside world.

Artists rushed to depict the new visitors, who were regarded with both curiosity and revulsion but, in either case, were an object of keen interest throughout Japan. As the city was a product of the treaty port system, Yokohama quickly embraced foreign technology. Japan's first major rail line was opened from Yokohama to Edo (by then renamed Tokyo) in 1872. Eventually, Yokohama would grow to swallow up Kanagawa-juku and other nearby towns, becoming the capital of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second-largest city in Japan.

Publication History and Census

This map was prepared by Ichikawa Yoshikazu (一川芳員), also known as Utagawa Yoshikazu (歌川芳員), indicating his training and school of woodblock printing, or simply as Yoshikazu. It was published by Shineidō (新栄堂) in Yokohama. It is undated, but from context (such as the full development of Miyozaki and the expansion of foreign warehouses to the other side of the bay), it can confidently be dated to the early 1860s, a few years after Yokohama's opening to foreign trade. This map is similar to a very early depiction of treaty port Yokohama by Sadahide (also a member of the Utagawa school) titled 'Large and Detailed Map of the Open Port of Kanagawa' (神奈川港明細大繪圖, also published by Shineidō). The main differences between the two are a slight change in the angle or orientation of the map and updates reflecting the city's rapid development. Both maps are quite scarce, with Ichikawa's map noted among the holdings of the University of California Berkeley, the Library of Congress, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, and the National Museum of Japanese History.