YOKOHAMA

This is a picture of Yokohama from the Bluff. Most houses are low - only a church and an official building is higher. The pictures are postcards from my collection. How was Yokohama at that time? The following is the desciption of Yokohama from 1903 from Murrays handbook for travellers to Japan. There is links to the pictures of the different places in the text (line under) or to the left.

Yokohama, the place where most visitors first touch Japanese soil, is the largest of the Treaty Ports and practically the port of Tokyo. The landing-place (Hatoba) and the Custom-house (Zei-kwan) are within 5 min. drive of the hotels, and within 10 min. of the principal Bailway Station.

Hotels.—Grand Hotel, No. 20; Oriental Palace Hotel, No. 11; Club Hotel, No. 5-B, all on the Bund, facing the sea ; Wright's Hotel, No. 40 ; Hotel de Geneve, No. 26 ; Bluff Hotel, No. 2, Bluff.

Restaurants. — (European food), principal Bail way Station (upstairs); Nissei-ro, in Ota-machi ; (Japanese food) Sanomo, in Ota-machi Sanchome.

Japanese Inns.—Fukui, in Benten-dori; Takano^a, in Honcho-dori.

Banks.—Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, No. 2; Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China, No. 58 ; Internationa] Bank, No. 75. Also Agency of the Chartered Mercantile Bank, No. L

Consulates. — British, No. 172 ; American, No. 234; German, No. 81; French, No. 84.

Post and Telegraph Office.—This, together with the Telephone Exchange, the Custom-house, and the Prefecture (Kencho), stands near the British and American Consulates, on the space between the Foreign Settlement and the Japanese town.

Steam Communication. — Japan Mail Steamship Company (Nippon Yusen Kwaisha), close to the Railway Station ; Peninsular and Oriental, No. 15 ; Messageries Maritimes, No. 9 ; Norddeutscher Lloyd, No. 29; Pacific Mail, Occidental and Oriental, and Toyo Kisen Kwaisha, No. 4-A ; Canadian Pacific, No. 14; Northern Pacific, Dodwell, Carlill and Co., No. 50-B.

Landing and Shipping Agents.— A. Weston, 8 Customs Hatoba ; MacArthur & Co., No. 10.

Churches. — Christ Church (Anglican), No. 335, Bluff; Union Church (Protestant), No. 167; Roman Catholic, No. 80.

Clubs.—Yokohama United Club, No. 4-B; Club Germania, No. 235; Masonic Temple.

Photographs of Japanese Scenery and Costumes.—Farsari, near Yato-bashi; Tamamura, 2, Benten-dori; Kimbei, in Honcho-dori.

Books and Maps relating to Japan. — Kelly and Walsh, No. 60; Maruya, in Benten-dori.

Foreign Stores for Japanese Works of Art.—Arthur & Bond's Fine Art Gallery, No. 38; Kuhn & Komor, No. 37; Kuhn, No. 57; Ellson & Delf, No. 32.

Japanese Curio Feeders.—Endo Art Furniture Co., 25 Uehida-cho, 6 chome, for carvings and other tine works of art; Samurai Shokwai, in Honcho Itch6me ; Musashi-ya, Bisansha, and Konoike, in Honcho-dori, for jewellery, ivories, silverware, etc.; Hattori, in Benten-dori Itchdme, for Satsuma porcelain. Matsuishi-ya, in Honcho-dori, porcelain in European shapes; and numerous others, especially in Benten-dori. Porcelain factory outside the native town at Ota-mura, known as Makuzu Kozan (shown to visitors).

Silk Stores —Ewata, No. 35, Settlement ; Tanabe, Shobei, and Shieno, all in Honcho-dori; also, for cheaper articles, Yamaguchi, in Otamachi; Goto, in Benten-dori Ni-chome.

Embroideries, Silk and Cotton Crapes, Japanese Cottons, etc.—No-zawa-ya, 30, Benten-dori; Tsuru-ya, in Ishikawa-machi.

Cloisonne.—Goto, in Uehida-cho (visitors are shown over the factory); Kawano, in Honcho Ni-chome.

Japanese Stationery. — Tanikawa-ya, in Minami Naka-dori Itchome.

Toys, etc.—Nagai, in Honcho-dori.

Bamboo and Bead Blinds, Cabinets, etc.—Moriyasu, in Benten-dori.

Florists.—Boehmer & Co., 5 and 28, Bluff; Yokohama Nursery Co., 21-35, Nakamura Bluff.

Japanese Theatres, etc.—Minato-za, in Sumiyoshi-cho; Hagoromo-za, in Hagoromo-cho. A sort of fair is held at night in Basha-michi-dori and Isezaki-cho.

Public Garden and Cricket Ground.—At the back of the Settlement, behind the American Consulate ; Bluff Gardens, No. 230.

Newspapers.—" Japan Daily Advertiser," " Japan Gazette," " Japan Herald," " Japan Mail," daily; " Japan Times," daily (published in Tokyo); " Box of Curios," " Eastern World," and " Deutsche Japanpost," weekly.

HISTORY.—Yokohama owes its commercial importance to the foreigners who have settled there. It was an insignificant fishing village when Commodore Perry-anchored off it in 1854, and gave American names to several points in the neighbourhood. When it was agreed to open a Treaty Port in this part of Japan, the choice naturally fell, not on Yokohama, but on the thriving town of Kanagawa, on the opposite side of the small bay, now partially filled in. But the Japanese Government, finding Kanagawa inconvenient because of its situation on the Tokaido, at a time when collisions between foreigners and the armed retainers of the Daimyos passing to and from the capital were to be apprehended, gave facilities for leasing ground at Yokohama instead. Thither, accordingly, the merchants, anxious to open up trade, repaired' in 1858. The consuls protested against the change; but the only lasting result of their protest is the retention of the name Kanagawa in certain*official documents. The superiority of the Yokohama anchorage doubtless reconciled the foreign community to the inferior position of the place on a mud flat facing north. The greater portion of the Settlement, as it now exists, dates from after the fire of 1866; and the Bluff", on which most of the well-to-do residents have their dwellings, was first leased for building purposes in 1867. A large and rapidly growing native town has sprung up outside the Foreign Settlement, and a new railway station called Hiranuma was opened there in 1901. Waterworks, opened in 1887, supply Yokohama from the Sagami-gawa, 28 miles distant. New harbour-works were completed in 1896.—In 1902, the foreign population of Yokohama, exclusive of Chinese, amounted to 2,358, of whom 1044 were British and 515 American.

It should be explained that al-though the streets have names, these are comparatively little used, as the numbering of the whole Settlement (Jap. Yamashita-cho) is continuous, irrespective of street names. A similar remark applies to the Bluff (Yamate-cho).

Though Yokohama boasts but few sights properly so called, the curio-hunter will here find himself in his element; and to one newly landed the native town, with its street-stalls and its theatrical and other shows, will afford an interesting spectacle. A visit should be paid to Noge-yama, close behind the Railway Station, for the sake of the general view of the town and harbour. Here stand some small, but popular and representative, shrines dedicated to the Shinto god of Akiha, to Doryo, a Buddhist saint, to Fudo, the great Buddhist god whose chief shrine is at Narita (see Route 5), and to the Sun-Goddess of Ise (see Route 33). This last, which crowns the hill, is generally known as Daijingu. Festivals are, held at Noge-yama on the 1st, 15th, and 28th of every month. The temple of Zotoku-in, dedicated to Yakushi Nyorai and situated in Moto-machi close to the Grand Hotel, celebrates its festivals on the 8th and 12th of the month.

Yokohama possesses a Race-course and a Public Hall, where English theatrical and other entertainments are given. Race meetings, often attended by His Majesty the Mikado, are held in spring and autumn. The race-course overlooks Mississippi Bay, which affords a charming objective point for a drive. Indeed, the whole neighbourhood abounds in fine landscapes. Fuji shows out well from the race-course, from the harbour, and from many other points.