The Barbarians Arrive: Japanese Depictions of Westerners (1860s)

In the 1850s U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry landed his ships in Japan and set about ending the Tokugawa shogunate’s two hundred years of self-imposed seclusion. Japanese ports opened up to England, France, Russia, Holland, and the United States.

But Japan was no melting pot. Westerners were corralled, unable to roam freely and kept apart from the Japanese.

The Japanese were curious as to what the Westerners looked like. So artists drew them in Yokohama-e (Yokohama pictures) often using borrowed imagery from secondary sources, such as wood engravings found in Western journals and newspapers.

 

The English

The English

 

Woodblock print by Utagawa Yoshitora of a Frenchman with a geisha, 1861

Woodblock print by Utagawa Yoshitora of a Frenchman with a geisha, 1861

True View of a Yokohama Mercantile House (Yokohama shokan shinzu), 1861

True View of a Yokohama Mercantile House (Yokohama shokan shinzu), 1861

 

3g08481v

 

Banquet of five nations (Yokohama club). Artist Yoshikazu Utagawa (1848-1863) Colour woodcut. Japanese diptych print shows a large group of people seated at a long table during a banquet at the Yokohama Club, 1861. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

Banquet of five nations (Yokohama club). Artist Yoshikazu Utagawa (1848-1863) Colour woodcut. Japanese diptych print shows a large group of people seated at a long table during a banquet at the Yokohama Club, 1861.

3g08479v

3g08480v

 

UNSPECIFIED - CIRCA 1754: British merchant at banquet in a foreign trading house in Yokohama, Japan, being waited on by a Chinese man, Thai chef in the background, 1861. Trade Commerce International Japanese (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

British merchant at banquet in a foreign trading house in Yokohama, Japan, being waited on by a Chinese man, Thai chef in the background, 1861.

3g08475v

 

 

Sketch of a Copperplate Print of the City of Washington (Amerika shu no uchi washintonfu no kei doban no utsushi), 1861

Sketch of a Copperplate Print of the City of Washington (Amerika shu no uchi washintonfu no kei doban no utsushi), 1861

3g08474v 3g08473v

 

 

3g10541v 3g10411v

3g03916v 3g10522v

 

A View of Yokohama Harbor (Koki Yokohama ichiran), 1860

A View of Yokohama Harbor (Koki Yokohama ichiran), 1860

3g10597v 3g10631v 3g10628v 3g10595v 3g10587v 3g10702v 3g10598v

 

Arrival and Departure of an American Steamship (Amerikakoku jokisha orai), 1861

Arrival and Departure of an American Steamship (Amerikakoku jokisha orai), 1861

3g10521v 3g10591v

 

Via: Art Institute of Chicago, Library of Congress

Would you like to support Flashbak?

Please consider making a donation to our site. We don't want to rely on ads to bring you the best of visual culture. You can also support us by signing up to our Mailing List. And you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. For great art and culture delivered to your door, visit our shop.