Lesson One

Yokohama Boomtown Curriculum, Lesson 01

Every Picture Tells a Story: Conducting a Detailed
Analysis of a Yokohama-Era Woodblock Print

Introduction
The elaborate woodblock prints created by Japanese artists during the early years of the Yokohama treaty port (1860s–1870s) are valuable primary sources that captured intricacies of the society, economy, and interaction between Japanese and Westerners in Yokohama. Woodblock prints conveyed everyday life and routines in rich detail for people living in Yokohama and elsewhere. They still communicate about life in the treaty port to viewers today. As such, they are powerful historical source materials.

In this lesson, students work in groups to conduct close analysis of woodblock prints from Yokohama Boomtown. They then construct narratives that tell the stories of the prints they studied.

National History Standards

Objectives
At the conclusion of this activity, students will be better able to:
• Understand how historical narrative is constructed from primary sources.
• Interrogate a visual text in order to select and organize data to construct a historical narrative.
• Identify a range of Western influences on Japan’s modernization process in the late 19th century.

Time Required
1–2 class periods

Materials and Preparation
• LCD projector
• Access to Yokohama Boomtown for the entire class and for students working individually, in pairs, and small groups
• Handouts 01-A and 01-B for all students
• Copies of each student group’s chosen woodblock print, printed in advance

Procedure
1. Using an LCD projector and Internet connection, show students the home page of Yokohama Boomtown. Direct students’ attention to one of the large, detailed woodblock prints that are showcased as “pop-ups” within the Yokohama Boomtown Essay. Either of the two pop-ups listed below would make good examples:

Picture of Newly Opened Port of Yokohama in Kanagawa
Picture of a Sunday in Yokohama

Show the image to students as it appears within the Essay. Then show students the “explore” button to the right the image; click on the button to reveal a larger version of the image with details and notes. Scroll through the detailed version with the class. Discuss how the author (historian John W. Dower) focused on specific sections in the woodblock print, embedding explanations to help the viewer catch details in the picture and thus learn more from it.

Explain that these notes are provided by the author to help reveal the story the picture tells. The woodblock itself presents a historical narrative—a story about a particular time and place.

Further explain that students are going to conduct a “close reading” of a Yokohama woodblock print and construct a written narrative based on the information in it.

2. Assign students to four- or eight-person work groups. Once students are in their work groups, distribute the student assignment Handout 01-A. Read through the directions with students to clarify the assignment, expectations, and individual and final group task.

Within each group, students will divide a specific woodblock print so that a single student (in a four-person group) or a pair of students (in an eight-person group) will examine a quadrant of the woodblock print. Using the LCD projector and any woodblock print in the unit, explain and demonstrate to students how to visually divide a woodblock into quadrants by imagining that they are folding the woodblock into quarters.

3. Note: for this step of the activity, individuals or pairs of students (depending on whether students are working in groups of four or eight) will need access to the Internet.

Assign each work group one of the following detailed woodblock prints from the Essay section of Yokohama Boomtown. For more advanced students, you may prefer to choose one of the woodblock prints that does not have explanatory notes embedded in the print. For most students, using a woodblock with notes will help them succeed at this task. The following recommended woodblock prints are listed on Handout 01-B:

Woodblocks without explanatory notes:
Essay: Interactions: Picture of Foreign Residence in Yokohama
Essay: Interactions: Picture of Foreigners' Revelry at the Gankirō in the Miyozaki Quarter of Yokohama
Essay: Interactions: Pictures of Amusements of Foreigners in Yokohama in Bushu
Essay: Internationalism: Picture of a Steam Locomotive

Woodblocks with explanatory notes:
Essay: Boomtown: Picture of Newly Opened Port of Yokohama in Kanagawa
Essay: Boomtown: Picture of a Sunday in Yokohama
Essay: Interactions: Picture of a Salesroom in a Foreign Mercantile Firm in Yokohama
Essay: Introduction: Picture of the Landing of Foreigners of the Five Nations in Yokohama

Within each work group, each student or pair of students will take either the upper left, upper right, lower left, or lower right quadrant of their woodblock as the focus of their study. Make sure the work groups make the quadrant assignments.

Students’ first task is to examine one quadrant of the print and pull as much detail and information out of it as they can. Students should note their findings on their own sheets of paper. Allow time for students to complete this first phase of their work, either in the remainder of the class period or as homework (if all students have home access to the Internet).

4. Note: print a copy of each group’s woodblock print before starting this step.

Ask work groups to come back together. Give each group the paper copy of its woodblock print so they have a reference while they are working offline.

Allow 15 minutes for the groups to share findings on each of the four quadrants. Students responsible for each quadrant should report to the others in their group on what the picture shows about life, economy, and interaction in Yokohama at the time.

5. To complete the project, explain that each group is to create a written narrative that tells the story of its woodblock print. There is no handout for this step; review the following directions carefully with students or create a brief list of instructions based on this step. Explain that the narrative (story) will take the form of a written essay that presents the information in the woodblock print. Within their groups, students should decide how to organize the information they have into an essay that speaks to the title of the woodblock print they analyzed. Review some options with students to help them get started. For example, students may want their narrative to tell the story of the picture as one “reads” the picture from left to right; since Japanese images and text are traditionally read from right to left, students may want their narrative to tell the story of the woodblock in this direction. Alternatively, students might pick themes or topics that emerged within the woodblock and organize their narrative around those.

Allow time for each group to present its narrative as its woodblock is projected for the class via LCD projector.

Lesson developed by Lynn Parisi.

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