The Opening of Yokohama and the Foreign Settlement — From Fishing Village to International Port
The opening of the country that began with the arrival of the Black Ships turned a quiet village into an international city almost overnight: Yokohama. From the Bakumatsu into the Meiji era, this was the front line where Japan met Western culture.
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Chosen as a port of opening
Under the commerce treaty concluded in 1858, ports such as Yokohama, Nagasaki, and Hakodate were opened to trade from 1859.
The treaty designated "Kanagawa" as one of the ports. But the shogunate, avoiding the busy post town of Kanagawa-juku on the Tōkaidō highway, developed the village of Yokohama on the opposite shore as the actual port of opening. Originally a small village, Yokohama was close to Edo and easy to develop, and a town was thrown up at speed. Here a district where foreigners lived and traded — the foreign settlement — was established.
Life in the settlement
Merchants, diplomats, and missionaries of various nations lived in the settlement, and Western-style buildings lined its streets. A quarter full of exotic atmosphere, unlike Japan's traditional townscapes, came into being.
Here newspapers, photography, Western food, Western dress, sports, and much else with no precedent in Japan were introduced one after another. Yokohama became the gateway through which new things landed from across the sea.
The changes trade brought
After the opening, raw silk, tea, and other goods were exported in volume from Yokohama. Raw silk in particular became a major Japanese export and greatly affected regional economies.
At the same time, the sudden surge of trade brought disorder — rising prices and the outflow of gold coin overseas. The benefits and the pains of opening up arrived together, two sides of the same coin.
A point of contact between cultures
Through daily exchange in the settlement, Japanese people came into direct contact with Western technology and ways of thinking. The scenes of the time are vividly preserved in the woodblock prints called Yokohama-e.
Yokohama was a window through which Bakumatsu Japan faced the world. The encounter with foreign culture that began here spread in time across the country, creating the great current of civilization and enlightenment.
The culture that budded in the era of the open ports is explored across Bakumatsu Culture.
Related reading
Photography in the Bakumatsu — Silver and Wet Plates Capture the Samurai
Photographic technology that arrived in Japan around the opening of the country preserved the faces of Bakumatsu people for posterity. A fact-based look at pioneers like Ueno Hikoma and the background to the famous portraits of the age.
The Black Ships and the Opening of Japan — Four Vessels That Ended Two Centuries of Seclusion
In 1853 the Black Ships under Commodore Perry appeared off Uraga, and Japan turned toward opening its ports. A clear, fact-based account of the arrival of the Black Ships, the end of seclusion, and the dawn of the Bakumatsu.
Rangaku and the Tekijuku — The Window onto the West Opened by the Dutch Language
Rangaku — Dutch learning — brought Western knowledge into secluded Japan. At Ogata Kōan's Tekijuku in Osaka, students like Fukuzawa Yukichi studied. A fact-based look at the scholarship and schools that underpinned Bakumatsu modernization.