Negishi

Negishi, created in 1916, depicts the residential area in the Yokohama-Tokyo corridor that was known in the early twentieth century for its quiet, semi-rural character. Negishi had historical significance as the location of Japan's first Western-style horse-racing track, established in 1866 for the foreign community in Yokohama, and the surrounding area retained a green, open quality even as Tokyo expanded southward.

Bartlett's oban woodblock print records this transitional landscape between urban and rural Japan. The Negishi setting offered a subject quite different from the famous scenic spots and monumental architecture that dominated most travel-oriented prints. Instead, Bartlett depicts the everyday landscape of a lived-in Japanese neighborhood, with its mixture of traditional buildings, cultivated plots, and the gentle topography of the Kanto plain. This choice reflects Bartlett's residence-based familiarity with Japan rather than a tourist's itinerary of famous views.