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Gaikokujin Yokohama jōriku gyōretsu no zu Title: Picture of a Parade of Foreigners Landing at Yokohama Artist: Yoshikazu (fl. ca. 1850-70) 1860:12 Format: Woodblock print Medium: Ink and color on paper Dimensions: 37 x25.6 cm (14 9/16 x10 1/16 in.) Source: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution A group of soldiers armed with rifles stands at attention in the foreign quarter of Yokohama. Although the artist has attempted to copy their uniforms with care, he apparently had difficulty rendering the correct perspective of such ornaments as the men's epulets, which hang askew. In 1860, when the print was published, relatively few foreign military officers would have been stationed in Yokohama. In Edo, however, where the foreign legations were located, military forces provided security. Count Mouravieff, representing Russia, is said to have "landed with a guard of three hundred men fully armed and equipped." Like those in Picture of a Procession of Foreigners at Yokohama, the figures in this print might have been based on Western illustrations. The depiction of the buildings of the foreign quarter, enclosed for security behind wood fences, parallels descriptions in contemporary accounts of Yokohama. [Adapted from Ann Yonemura, Yokohama: Prints from Nineteenth-Century Japan] Visualizing Cultures image number: Y0096 Keywords: foreign settlement, military, weaponry, Westerners, Yokohama, art influences from the West |
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