Koka era, from

A print depicting a scene from the Koka era (1844–48) — the final decades of the Tokugawa shogunate before the arrival of Commodore Perry's fleet in 1853 forced Japan to open its ports. The Koka era was a moment of mounting crisis: the shogunate was struggling with internal challenges, coastal defense was being debated urgently, and the outside world was pressing against Japan's self-imposed isolation. Chikanobu's depictions of the Koka era would document the dress and customs of this anxious pre-modern moment.