Illustration of Foreign Residences and the Catholic Church in Yokohama (Yokohama shōkan tenshudō no zu)
横浜商館天主堂之図
- Date:
- 10th month, 1870
- Medium:
- Triptych of woodblock prints (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
横浜商館天主堂之図
This woodblock print [triptych](/glossary/triptych) ([nishiki-e](/glossary/nishiki-e)) by Utagawa Hiroshige III, dated to the tenth month of 1870 and held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession number JP3349), is one of his early [Yokohama-e](/glossary/yokohama-e) and documents the foreign settlement at Yokohama only a year after he formally assumed the Hiroshige III name. The print shows Western merchant houses and the Catholic church (Tenshudō) on the bluff above the harbour, with figures in European dress, jinrikisha, and the distinctive flagged consular buildings of the foreign quarter. The Catholic church depicted is the Yokohama Tenshudō built by French Catholic missionaries in 1862, one of the earliest Christian churches openly constructed in Japan after the Tokugawa-era ban on Christianity was lifted. The print, in standard ōban triptych format at 72.1 by 36.8 cm (vertical), uses the strong aniline reds and purples that characterized Meiji-era nishiki-e, distinguishing them at a glance from the more restrained vegetable-pigment palette of the late Edo period. Yokohama-e prints like this one were sold to a domestic Japanese audience hungry for visual information about the foreigners now living in their own country, and Hiroshige III was one of the most prolific designers of the genre. The print is part of the Metropolitan Museum's collection of Meiji-era Japanese prints.
1882
Color woodblock print; ōban
東京名所 上野公園不忍ノ池中島弁天之景
May, 1881
Triptych of woodblock prints (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Illustration of Foreign Residences and the Catholic Church in Yokohama (Yokohama shōkan tenshudō no zu) (横浜商館天主堂之図) was created by Utagawa Hiroshige III (三代目歌川広重) in 10th month, 1870.
Illustration of Foreign Residences and the Catholic Church in Yokohama (Yokohama shōkan tenshudō no zu) depicts landscapes.