Kobe

Kobe, created in 1916, depicts the major port city on the southern coast of Honshu that served as one of Japan's primary gateways to the outside world. Kobe had been open to foreign trade since 1868, and by the early twentieth century its waterfront combined Japanese commercial architecture with Western-style buildings, churches, and the residences of the international merchant community on the slopes above the harbor.

Bartlett's oban woodblock print renders this cosmopolitan port city, likely focusing on the harbor area where ships from across Asia and the world anchored against the backdrop of the Rokko mountain range. As a British-born artist who had himself arrived in Japan by sea, Bartlett would have experienced Kobe as a point of entry, and his print may carry the quality of a first or lasting impression. The city's position between mountains and sea created a compressed, visually dynamic landscape where urban development, maritime activity, and natural scenery occupied a narrow coastal strip.