A Distant View of Yokohama Honmura, the Licensed District, Noge Bridge, and Yoshida Bridge, from the Entrance to Yokohama near the Mountain Pass at at Noge Village

Art Historical Context

In this vibrant woodblock print from the3rd month of 1860, Utagawa (Gountei) Sadahide, a master of the Utagawa, captures a sweeping vista of Yokohama's emerging urban landscape. Viewed from the entrance near Noge Village's mountain pass, the composition showcases the Honmura licensed district—a lively pleasure quarter—flanked by the iconic Noge and Yoshida Bridges, with boats dotting the waterways below. Sadahide's ukiyo-e style, the "floating world" of everyday pleasures and transient scenes, brings the bustling harbor to life with crowds of men and women going about their day. Created during the late Edo period (1615–1868), just a year after Yokohama opened as a treaty port following Commodore Perry's arrival, this print documents Japan's rapid transformation amid Western trade. Yokohama-e, or "Yokohama prints" like this one, became popular for depicting foreigners, new architecture, and cultural exchanges, offering Edo-era viewers a glimpse of modernity at the edge of isolationist Japan. The meticulous woodblock technique—carved blocks layered with vivid inks and colors on paper—highlights Sadahide's skill in perspective and detail, evoking the energy of a pivotal moment. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Asian Art Department, it remains a treasured snapshot of Japan's threshold to the Meiji era.

About the Artist

Utagawa (Gountei) Sadahide · 1807–1873

Utagawa Sadahide was born Hashimoto Kenjirō in 1807 in Fusa Province, in the area of modern Chiba Prefecture, Japan. In the 1820s he entered the studio of the enormously prolific and influential master Utagawa Kunisada, becoming one of Kunisada's most prominent pupils and adopting the studio name Sadahide along with the Utagawa school's celebrated lineage. By 1828 his name appeared on a monument l...