Yokohama Boomtown Image Gallery / Y0121_American_horseman
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Y0121_American_horseman
 
Bushū Yokohama hakkei no uchi: Noge no seiran

Title: Eight Views of Yokohama in Bushū (Modern Musashi Province): Sunset Glow at Noge
Artist: Yoshitora (fl. ca. 1850-80)
1861
Format: Woodblock print
Medium: Ink and color on paper
Dimensions: 35.7 x24.5 cm (14 1/16 x9 5/8 in.)
Source: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Noge Bridge spanned a narrow channel along the causeway from Yokohama toward Kanagawa, a post town on the Tokaidō, one of Japan's principal highways during the Edo period. Although foreign residents were restricted from traveling far from Yokohama, riding was one of their favorite pastimes, and many scenic spots lay within the sanctioned limits. Here an American is accompanied by a Japanese groom who customarily ran alongside a rider to supply fresh straw shoes for the horse and warn passersby to make way. In this print, which depicts the scenic landscape in the warm glow of the setting sun, Yoshitora follows the traditional theme somewhat more closely than in his other prints from the "Eight Views of Yokohama" series." [Adapted from Ann Yonemura, Yokohama: Prints from Nineteenth-Century Japan]

Visualizing Cultures image number: Y0121

Keywords: Westerners, servants, animals, Americans, Tokaidō, Kanagawa, horseback riding, art influences from China, racial intermingling of Japanese and foreigners
 



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