1874 Hiroshige III Ukiyo-e Triptych of Yokohama Steam Train

A fascinating ukiyo-e triptych of the Japan's first passenger railway at Yokohama, drawn by Utagawa Hiroshige III and published by Hamadaya Tetsugorō in 1874.

A Closer Look

Oriented towards the northwest looking towards the harbor of Yokohama, this view depicts a steam train on the Tokyo - Yokohama line, Japan's first modern railway. Ships of various nations, including a paddle steamer at right, are anchored in the harbor, surrounded by smaller ships engaged in trade or fishing. In the background at right is 'French Mountain' (フランス山), so named because French troops were stationed there from the early days of Yokohama.

In the foreground is the titular train, with figures either sitting on the train, standing next to it, or regarding it from beyond a fence. Though ambiguous, most if not all the figures appear to be Japanese, despite the fully Western-style Victorian dress most are wearing. The table at top-right is an early example of a timetable, providing basic information on fares, including different classes and discounts for children, and times of trains.

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 rapidly 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 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 the training of Japanese railway engineers, though 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 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.

Nishiki-e (錦繪)

Nishiki-e (literally 'brocade picture', also known as Edo-e 江戸繪 because it developed in the Tokugawa capital of Edo) is a style of woodblock printing that emerged in the 1760s and revolutionized the medium. Instead of producing a black and white print which was then hand-colored, or perhaps with one or two color blocks added, as had been done previously, nishiki-e prints allowed for the combination of many blocks, each adding one color to a complete image, which were fitted together perfectly. The result was that vibrantly-colored prints could be produced in greater numbers in far less time, allowing for popular distribution of woodblock prints, especially ukiyo-e prints.

Nishiki-e remained the dominant mode of woodblock printing through the Meiji era and was critical to the distribution of prints that carried depictions of new technologies and ideas throughout Japan in the mid-late 19th century. The present work falls squarely within the Yokohama-e (橫濱繪) genre, depicting foreigners and foreign technologies in the wake of Yokohama's opening as a treaty port in 1859.

Publication History and Census

This ukiyo-e triptych was drawn by Utagawa Hiroshige III and published by Hamadaya Tetsugorō (浜田屋鉄五郎), an obscure and ephemeral publisher, in 1874 (Meiji 7). It is one of several, similarly-titled views of the Yokohama - Tokyo steam train depicted by Hiroshige III in the early 1870s, though this appears to be among the scarcer of the series. We only note institutional examples at the Yokohama City Central Library and the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History, and the work is scarce to the market.