European Others

Interior of an American Steamship, Utagawa Yoshikazu, 1861.

This triptych features one of many ships that would have been present in the port city of Yokoahama. Unlike the reality however, many women are seen in the boat's dinning room; women were rarely allowed to accompany merchants on their journey to Japan. Japanese artists and audiences have produced and purchased many prints that depict the dinning habits of European and American visitors. In the dinning area you see many glass objects as well as ceramic bowls and serving wear. Mirrors are also often dipcited in interior Westerner homes, as glass mirrors were a new import good to Japan.

A Young French Lady and a Siamese Servant Taking a Dog for a Walk, Utagwa Sadahide, 1860.

This print again features a European woman present in Yokohama, which was a rare event, but typical reprsentation in yokohama-e. Scholars have traced source images of women's clothing to illustrated newspapers brought into Yokohama by Westerns as well as body poses. The Siamaese man with her is identified as a servant, which was a common sight as many Europeans brought servants of other ethnicies. This represents a typical representation of prints found in current scholarship on yokohama-e. 

Westerns in Yokohama-e

Yokohama-e were a genre of woodblock prints produced between the 1860s and 1870s, with the majority of printed being published in 1860 and 1861.[1] The catalyst for yokohama-e (横浜絵) was the opening of the trading port to international trade in 1858 by Commodore Matthew Perry (1794-1858) followed shortly by the nations of England, France, Russian and the Netherlands. These “five nations” are often the subject matter of prints, along with other exotic animals and goods that came to Japan via the merchants in Yokohama. These prints continued to represent the other through their outward appearances, especially costume. Many yokohama-e also captured the language of these “five nations” by depicting foreigners with the katakana versions of common words. Yokohama-e were short lived and by the early 1870’s woodblock printing industry was failing as the Meiji government preferred newer, European methods of printing.

English scholarship on yokohama-e tends to focus on the representation of European and American foreigners in Yokohama, which is warranted because Westerns were the primary subject matter.[2] Common themes include foreign clothing styles (including women who were rarely present in Yokohama) and customs surrounding dining.