This opening was swiftly followed by an unparalleled modernization and Westernization in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The development of railways facilitated rapid urbanization and along with that came a shift away from traditional lifestyles.
In the twenty-first century, when social networking has created a demand for a constant photographic recording of one’s life, the urge for documentation is especially apparent in the behavior of tourists, where excessive photographing and digital sharing seems to have largely replaced the once obligatory postcard writing. An obsession with capturing scenes visually has always been noticeable in Japan: in the late twentieth century, the camera-wielding Japanese tourist was a common stereotype worldwide. This interest in documenting travel is not new, and is one of the reasons why thousands of different views of Japan’s scenery were offered as commercially produced woodblock prints in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Such prints were attractive not just as a memory of a past trip but also as a visualization of a desired future journey. Today they allow us a glimpse of life at that time and provide also an image of the scenery then, although we should keep in mind that views of remote locations weren’t necessarily accurate representations but rather idealized interpretations by artists who usually did not have the opportunity to actually see these places with their own eyes. Instead, they often based their pictures on illustrations in travel guidebooks.
Two artists were especially successful in designing landscape prints and have received substantial international recognition over time: Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) and Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858). Hokusai created an enormous output of several thousands of highly original prints, paintings, sketches, and book illustrations. Since around 1800, he regularly designed landscape prints and significantly influenced the genre, first and foremost with his print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji from ca. 1829–1833.
Geisha and courtesans are seen by many as cultural icons associated with a traditional Japanese lifestyle. Ca. 1815, Kikugawa Eizan, The Courtesans Tsukioka and Hinagoto of the Hyogoya.
Ikaho is a hot spring resort in the center of Gunma Prefecture, located near the foot of Mount Haruna. 1883, Toyohara Chikanobu, Ikaho Spa, Foreigners at a Festive Meal with a Bath House in the Background.
This highly esteemed print was copied in 1887 by Vincent van Gogh in oils. 1857, Utagawa Hiroshige, Sudden Shower over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake, from the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo.
Hiroshige’s first landscape prints appeared in the early 1830s and he subsequently became the leading landscape artist. He was especially known for several series he did depicting sights along the Tokaido road, the earliest and most famous of which is generally known as Tokaido published by Hoeido, and was issued ca. 1832–1833. The print entitled Hara: Fuji in the Morning on page 111 is an example from this series. Hiroshige was equally successful with views of famous places in Edo, such as his final series of masterworks, One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, published from 1856 until 1858 of which many examples are shown in Chapter One of this book. The city of Edo was by far the most popular scenic motif in the nineteenth century and woodblock prints that feature the city include depictions of the important and popular roads, rivers, bridges, shrines, and temples, featuring them at specific times of the year, such as spring wisteria blooms at the shrine at Kameido, or summer fireworks on the Sumida River. Many of the Edo locations featured in this book are still tourist attractions today, although other areas, such as the electronic mecca of Akihabara and the nightlife district of Roppongi were established after the Second World War and are not featured in the woodblock prints of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries.
Women walk in the snow to a backdrop of one the aqueducts that supplied Edo’s water. 1853, Utagawa Hiroshige, Ochanomizu (detail) from the series Famous Places in Edo.
ABOUT THIS BOOK
This book offers a vivid glimpse into the lifestyle of the Japanese in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and particularly into a burgeoning love of travel, through the predominant visual media of the time, woodblock prints. The prints featured here are not only classical ukiyo-e (literally ‘pictures of the floating world,” a term used to describe the hedonistic world of entertainment often depicted in these prints) from the late seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, but also include examples of shin hanga, literally “new prints,” created in the early twentieth century, which offer a look at Japan that is somewhat closer to the present day.
As well as famous sights in the cities of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, and other scenic locations that are as popular with travelers today as they were in the past, such as Hakone, Nikko, and Nara, this book also depicts the cultural icons broadly identified with a traditional Japanese lifestyle. Sumo, kabuki, hot springs, blossom viewing, kimono, tea-drinking, and geisha all exerted the same fascination over travelers in the nineteenth century as they do today.
Because the nineteenth century heyday of woodblock print production in Japan coincided with the country’s Westernization, frequent themes to be found in this book are the Western fashions and modes of transport that suddenly appeared in Japan from the 1860s onwards. The advent of the railway in particular provided much inspiration for woodblock print artists of the day.
The bulk of the prints in this book are famous and popular images, for instance from the previously mentioned celebrated series by Hiroshige and Hokusai. A few of the prints are rather rare, such as Utagawa Kuniyoshi’s Fuji from Mimeguri (see page 115). Prints like this one were meant to be used as fans and therefore not many have survived. All prints in this book are of the original artworks, created at the time indicated in the captions. Some prints are cropped to emphasize details. When prints are cropped radically, the caption includes the word “detail” and a thumbnail of the uncropped print can be seen on page 166. Most of the prints are from the remarkable collections at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Honolulu Museum of Art; the rest are from the collections of the British Museum, National Diet Library, Library of Congress, Scripps College, Paulette and Jack Lantz, Scholten Japanese Art, THEARTOFJAPAN.COM, and le cabinet japonais / Kotobuki GmbH. I am grateful for the generosity of these institutions and individuals in granting permission to reproduce their prints in this book.
Festivals such as Girls’ Day still exert a cultural fascination. Ca. 1772–1775, Utagawa Toyoharu, The Third Month: The Doll Festival, Gathering Shellfish at Low Tide, from the series Day and Night Scenes of the Twelve Months.
Hakone, near Lake Akinosho, was one of two checkpoints along the Tokaido, Japan’s most frequented road. These checkpoints controlled the flow of weapons into Edo and the movement of feudal lords and their families out of Edo. Ca. 1832–1833, Utagawa Hiroshige, Hakone: Picture of the Lake, from the series The Fifty-three Stations along the Tokaido.
In 1720, the shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune ordered the planting of cherry trees in Asukayama for the enjoyment of the people. This area is now Asukayama Park in Tokyo’s Kita Ward. Ca. 1832–34, Utagawa Hiroshige, Cherry-blossom Viewing at Asukayama, from the series Famous Places in Edo.
