<Woodblock prints - "kaika-e" and "Yokohama-e">
Many people from other countries came to Japan following the arrival by U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853 (Kaei 6). From that time into the early part of the Meiji period, woodblock illustrators vied with each other in portraying these visitors and their cultural/civilized things, customs and manners. Although there are several different ways of classification, these works are generally called "kaika-e" (i.e., "modernization pictures"). In 1859 (Ansei 6), when the Tokugawa Shogunate opened the port of Yokohama to trade in accordance with the treaties concluded with the five countries of the United States, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Russia, and France, many foreign ships came to anchor off the coast there, and brought many passengers to reside in the city's foreign settlement. In the process, all sorts of items needed by the new residents for everyday life, business, and social activities also entered Yokohama, which acquired a pronounced exotic atmosphere of the sort the Japanese had never experienced before. Scenes of Yokohama consequently became a favorite subject of woodblock print illustrators. While some insist that, properly speaking, the term "Yokohama-e" (i.e., "Yokohama pictures") ought to be applied only to these prints, others widen its scope to include all such prints produced from the time of Perry's visit until about 1877 (Meiji 10). In the latter interpretation, it may basically be equated with "kaika-e."
The production of these prints was in its heyday in the years before the spread of photography, and their popularity rapidly rose inside Japan. Westerners, too, bought a lot of "kaika-e" and "Yokohama-e" along with traditional woodblock prints dating from the middle part of the Edo era, and took them back to their own countries with them.
<Zenith of "kaika-e" and "Yokohama-e" production>
The techniques applied in production of woodblock prints were established during the Edo era, and there are many genres and types of prints. Once the port of Yokohama was opened, publishers of the prints based in Edo apparently began to send their illustrators to Yokohama in a steady stream. Production of "Yokohama-e" surged in the period from 1860 (Man’en 1) (the year right after the port-opening) to 1863 (Bunkyu period; 1861-1863). The illustrators first painted things such as the ships from overseas, foreigners' clothes, horse-drawn carriages, and other subjects indicative of foreign life and culture, and then found themselves attracted to the newly built specimens of Western architecture. But upon the opening of the railroad line between Tokyo's Shinagawa district and Yokohama in 1872 (Meiji 5), their interest was diverted to the train, which stood as the very symbol of modernization. Many painted the steam locomotive puffing clouds of smoke and the long line of carriages behind it. "Yokohama-e" remained highly popular until around 1877 (Meiji 10).
<The illustrators and their organization behind "kaika-e" and "Yokohama-e">
Many of the illustrators who painted "kaika-e" in this period were of the Utagawa school, which traced its start to Toyoharu Utagawa, who was active in the middle part of the Edo era. Their line ran from Toyokuni to Toyokuni II, Kunisada, and Kuniyoshi. There was another branch from Kunisada, who called himself Toyokuni III, that continued with Kunisada II (who was the fourth to succeed to the Toyokuni name), Sadahide, and Kunihisa. Kuniyoshi's students including Yoshika-zu, Yoshitora, Yoshifuji, Yoshiiku, Yoshitoshi, Yoshinobu, Yoshimori, Yoshitsuya, Yoshitomi, Yoshitoyo, and Yoshikata. In the line linking Toyohiro and Hiroshige were Hiroshige II, Hiroshige III, Kuniteru, and Ikkei.
These illustrators, who reportedly numbered over 40, were attached to several publishers. The pictures they painted were handed to their stable woodcarver, who carved them on wooden
blocks. The blocks were used by the printer to transfer the woodcut images to paper by rubbing it over the inked carvings with a "baren," his traditional tool. This linked system of production became established with the development of the prints in the Edo era, and the "kaika-e" were made thrugh the same procedure.
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