Yokohama Expansion

Yokohama 

横浜

Artist
BEATO, Felice
ベアト、フェリーチェ
Birth Year
1834
Death Year
1909
Date
ca. 1863–70 
Technique, Material, Format
hand-colored albumen print 
Dimension
21.6 x 28.8 cm 
Category
Photograph or Moving Image by ForeignPhotographer/Artist 
Inventory Number
84-PHF-008-03 

This photograph captures a view of Yoshida Shinden (currently around Kannai-Ishikawacho) from the hills of Yamate, Yokohama, shortly after the opening of Yokohama Port. Isn’t it amazing to think how quiet Yokohama was just 150 years ago? In the center is the Yokohama Ironworks, then under construction. It seems to symbolize this small village’s first step toward modernization prompted by the opening of the port.
Felice Beato was an English photographer who worked in the Yokohama foreign settlement. While at first glance this looks like it might be color, it is a black-and-white photograph that has been painstakingly colored by a craftsman. These “colored photographs,” which are said to have been invented by Beato, became a popular souvenir for foreign tourists in Yokohama throughout the Meiji Era (1868–1912).
(MATSUNAGA Shintaro)

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