Urban Scenes Prints (704)
Urban scenes document the cities and towns of Japan through the lens of woodblock printmaking, capturing architecture, street life, commercial activity, and the evolving character of Japanese urban spaces across four centuries. The genre reflects Japan's transformation from a feudal society of castle towns to one of the world's most densely urbanized nations. Edo (modern Tokyo) was the original subject of urban-scene prints, with artists like Hiroshige documenting its bridges, markets, temples, and pleasure quarters in series such as "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo." These prints served both as artistic compositions and as practical guides for residents and travelers, recording neighborhoods that would later be transformed by modernization, fire, and earthquake. The Meiji era brought dramatic new urban subjects — railway stations, brick buildings, gas lamps, and Western-dressed pedestrians — as artists documented Japan's rapid transformation. Shin-hanga artists like Hasui and Koitsu later turned to older streetscapes, capturing traditional architecture and nighttime atmospheres threatened by modernization. Their prints of temple gates, canal-side houses, and lantern-lit streets became nostalgic records of a disappearing Japan, prized today as much for their documentary value as their artistic merit.
Artists Known for Urban Scenes
Towers of Cologne (Kerun no to)
1962
Color woodblock print; edition 6/20
ENCYU (Hot Afternoon)
Woodblock print
Hommaru mieyagura
Woodblock print
True Pictures of Famous Places in Tokyo: The Industrial College at Toranomon
Woodblock print
True Pictures of Famous Places in Tokyo: The Railroad at Takanawa
Woodblock print
Leningrad Unga
Woodblock print
Military Grand Parade
Woodblock print
Quai Poterie
1919
Pedlars
Woodblock print
Hara Shobō
Woodblock print
Year-End Fair (A)
Woodblock print
House (Hiroshima) 2/2
Woodblock print
#52 Meiji za
Woodblock print
Timberyard Daughter - 木場の娘
Woodblock print
Dome in Vienna (Uin no domu)
1961
Color woodblock print; edition 7/20
Ostankind, Moskva (Moscow)
Woodblock print
December
Woodblock print
Yasaka neighborhood
Not set
Woodblock print
Roofs in Nagasaki
Woodblock print
Factories
Woodblock print
Hitachi Shipbuilding and Engineering Co
Woodblock print
Harvard Art Museum
Woodblock print
Ponte S. Paternina, Venice (no. 24)
1920s
Clown Acrobat, Shôwa period, dated 1960
Woodblock print
Tori-no-Ichi Fair
Woodblock print
Tsuchiya-koitsu
1936
Woodblock print
Baseball Tournament
Woodblock print
(Bunmei Kaika Orai)
Woodblock print
Anao's Alley
Woodblock print
Le Quai Vert
1919
Fishmonger
Woodblock print
Nikke
ca. 1935
Quai St. Ann
1919
Tradesmen
Woodblock print
Quai du Miroir
1919
The Barge
1919
Durham, after Frank Brangwyn
Woodblock print
At Victoria B.C., Canada
Woodblock print
City Love
Wood engraving
Introduction, with vignette after Brangwyn
1919
Infotropolis/Shinjuku (One Hundred Views of Tokyo, Message to the 21st Century)
Lithograph
The Town of Lugano
Woodblock print
Courtesan and Two Kamuro Promenading on a City Street
Woodblock print
Dusk in Ginza (Fujisawa mokuhan calendar 1949)
Woodblock print
Ueno
Woodblock print
Asakusa
Woodblock print
Kanda Myojin
Woodblock print
Nezu
Woodblock print
Asukayama
Woodblock print
Oji-takinokawa
Woodblock print
Oji
Woodblock print
Horikiri
Woodblock print
Sumidagawa
Woodblock print
Shin-Yoshiwara
Woodblock print
Issekibashi
Woodblock print
Surawaka-cho
Woodblock print
Ryogoku
Woodblock print
Yanagijima
Woodblock print
Gohyakurakan
Woodblock print
Eilaibashi
Woodblock print
Related Subjects
Frequently Asked Questions
Urban scenes document the cities and towns of Japan through the lens of woodblock printmaking, capturing architecture, street life, commercial activity, and the evolving character of Japanese urban spaces across four centuries. The genre reflects Japan's transformation from a feudal society of castle towns to one of the world's most densely urbanized nations.
Utagawa Hiroshige, Inoue Yasuji, and Oda Kazuma are among the artists most associated with urban scenes in our collection. Browse the full list of artists who explored this subject above.
Hanga currently catalogues 704 prints tagged with urban scenes, spanning ukiyo-e, shin-hanga, and sōsaku-hanga traditions where applicable.