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
Selection of Views of the Tokaido: Kozu Town in Suruga (Tokaido fukei senshu: Suruga Okitsu-cho)
Woodblock print
Shirozaki in Tajima District
Woodblock print
Shirozaki in Tajima district- Kinosaki
Woodblock print
Three District Exhibition Commemoration- Okayama — 岡山博
Woodblock print
Tokyo Business Street
Woodblock print
City View (Posthumous woodcut of a Kiyochika painting)
Woodblock print
![[Kuropatkin(?) as town crier] by Kobayashi Kiyochika](https://data.ukiyo-e.org/loc/images/00947v.jpg)
[Kuropatkin(?) as town crier]
Woodblock print
Photographing Our Troops Fighting at the Fortified Town of Niuzhuang (Waga guntai Gyûsôjô shigaisen satsuei no zu)
Woodblock print
Rain on the outskirts of a town
Woodblock print
Cat Town
2013
Etching and aquatint
City Park
Woodcut
Town Sedan
Woodcut
Light in the Town
Etching and aquatint
"Boston's Beacon Street"
Woodblock print
Fierce Street Battle at Niuzhuang (Gyûsô shigai gekisen)
Woodblock print
Yabu Street at the foot of Atago Hill (Atagoshita yabukoji), from the series "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)"
Color woodblock print
New Town (411)
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Kagurazaka street
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Village Street in snow
Etching
Jinbocho old books street
Etching
Sawatari In Joshu district
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
City bird
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Town
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Sunset town
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Street food stall
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Nihonbashi district
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Tokyo City view
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Street Scene
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Fakutory Street of Fukagawa
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Revived Ginza street
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Nara Old city
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Car town
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Tea plantation of Nishio Town
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Cat town - a fantasy in the manner of a prose poem
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Snow-covered street in Kyoto.
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Street
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Kyoto street in winter
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Georgetown M-street, Washington DC
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Old city Kudara (Korea)
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Georgetown street
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Street
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Street with children in festival dress
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Nagare Pleasure Quarter, Kanazawa (Kanazawa Nagare no kuruwa), from the series Souvenirs of Travel, First Series (Tabi miyage dai isshū)
1920
Color woodblock print
The City Flourishing, Tanabata Festival (Shichu han'ei Tanabata Matsuri), from the series “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (Meisho Edo hyakkei)”
1857
Color woodblock print; oban
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.