While Japan had limited trade and contact with the West for much of the 17th through 19th centuries, things opened up in the mid-1800s. [Yōdō jizu] contains a number of interesting depictions on this modernization period, including these illustrations of famous westerners. Utagawa Kuniteru and Utagawa Fusatane are the artist listed, and there isn’t a date but it’s presumably from the 1870s. In looking for more information on these images, I came across this @publicdomainreview post that includes many of these same images, with translations. Turns out, they were from the Japanese Ministry of Education!

Make your own discovery by browsing our Japanese Illustrated Books from the Edo and Meiji Period.

Japan Westerners Utagawa illustration famous people inventors scientists industrialization

Jun 05, 2019
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  1. smithsonianlibraries posted this