Yokohama-e

Yokohama-e (横浜絵, "Yokohama pictures") are Japanese woodblock prints depicting non-East Asian foreigners and scenes in the port city of Yokohama.

History

The port of Yokohama was opened to foreigners in 1859, and ukiyo-e artists, primarily of the Utagawa school, produced more than 800 different woodblock prints in response to a general curiosity about these strangers. The production of yokohama-e ceased in the 1880s.

Artists

The most prolific artists working in this genre were Utagawa Yoshitora, Utagawa Yoshikazu, Utagawa Sadahide, Utagawa Yoshiiku, Utagawa Yoshimori, Utagawa Hiroshige II, Utagawa Hiroshige III, Utagawa Yoshitoyo, and Utagawa Yoshitomi.

Gallery

• Woodblock print by Utagawa Yoshitora of a Frenchman at the Gankirō brothel, 1861
  Woodblock print by Utagawa Yoshitora of a Frenchman at the Gankirō brothel, 1861
• First steam train leaving Yokohama, triptych by Utagawa Kunisada II, 1872
  First steam train leaving Yokohama, triptych by Utagawa Kunisada II, 1872
• Japanese print showing American naturalist and ornithologist John James Audubon (1785-1851) discovering that his work was eaten by a rat, unsigned
  Japanese print showing American naturalist and ornithologist John James Audubon (1785-1851) discovering that his work was eaten by a rat, unsigned
• Sumo wrestler throwing a foreigner at Yokohama by Utagawa Yoshifuji, 1861
  Sumo wrestler throwing a foreigner at Yokohama by Utagawa Yoshifuji, 1861
• Utagawa Yoshitora (1860) English Couple
  Utagawa Yoshitora (1860) English Couple
• Big Elephants Being Attacked, by Isshinsai Yoshikata, 2nd month, 1863[1]
  Big Elephants Being Attacked, by Isshinsai Yoshikata, 2nd month, 1863
• Never Seen Before: True Picture of a Live Wild Tiger, by Kawanabe Kyōsai, 1860
  Never Seen Before: True Picture of a Live Wild Tiger, by Kawanabe Kyōsai, 1860

References

• Lane, Richard. (1978). Images from the Floating World, The Japanese Print, Oxford, Oxford University Press. ; OCLC 5246796
• Newland, Amy Reigle. (2005). Hotei Encyclopedia of Japanese Woodblock Prints, Amsterdam, Hotei. ; OCLC 61666175
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, Foreigners in Japan, Yokohama and Related Woodcuts in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1972.
• Rijksmuseum, The Age of Yoshitoshi, Japanese Prints from the Meiji and Taishō periods, Nagasaki, Yokohama, and Kamigata prints, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, 1990.
• Yonemura, Ann, Yokohama, Prints from Nineteenth-century Japan, Washington, D.C., Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1990.

External links

• Japan and the West: Artistic Cross-Fertilization, at the Library of Congress, including examples of Yokohama-e