Title: Picture of the Landing of Foreigners of the Five Nations in Yokohama
Artist: Yoshikazu (fl. ca. 1850-70)
This is a fairly large drawing depicting the "Five Nations" (from the lower left, clockwise: Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Russia and America). Each group (country) is drawn in the tropes of that nation. Not only do they have the flags to represent which group is from which country, the individuals of each group are represented in their nation's "typical" military dress. I think this picture is particularly interesting because of all the different styles presented, even among the ships in the harbor. There is also an interaction going on between two Chinese men in the foreground. This interaction, while important to historical context and to the picture itself, fights for attention among the busyness of the rest of the drawing. It seems to be a fantastical representation of a friendly yet threatening meeting of the five nations.....................................
In this image it is interesting how you can see the differences between the people from all the different countries. The uniforms really make this picture, especially the United States soldiers uniforms displaying the red, white and blue. This picture shows the start of the Western invasion.
ReplyDeleteI like how detailed all the different uniforms are, but I'm wondering if the artist intentionally made all the foreigners look the same bar the Chinese. If it weren't for their uniforms and flags, I imagine it would be rather difficult to know who is who. I wonder if that was intention to represent how overwhelming such a meeting would be for a nation that closed its borders for over 200 years.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how the three fold image includes but separates all of the nations in the image. I think the most interesting part of the photo is the difference in size of boats. Every single last boat is so small compared to the black ship. It's even more entertaining to see how tiny other boats are compared to the other small ones. Some of the boats are just so minuscule! But the big black ship looms over no matter what.
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