shows photos of Japan between the 1860s and 1930s. In 1854, Japan opened its doors to the outside world for the first time in more than 200 years. It set in motion a truly astounding transformation. As fate would have it, photography had just been invented. As the old country vanished and a new one was born, daring photographers took photos. Discover what life was like with their rare and precious photographs of old Japan.

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12/31/2026 (Thursday)

Unbeaten Tracks in Japan • Isabella L. Bird

In 1878, just 19 years after Japan opened it first ports to the world, and a mere ten years after the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate, an adventurous 47-year old woman from the UK set out to explore the interior of Japan. The country was virtually unknown to Westerners, and a woman traveling only with a guide seemed outrageous. Everybody advised her not to, but she went anyway and wrote this unique and vivid journal of what she saw and experienced.

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Tags: Unknown • Meiji • Tokyo • City Views
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Rackety wooden houses with shingled roofs in Tokyo’s Anjincho (安針町) in the Nihonbashi district. This image was published in the June 17 1872 issue of the newsmagazine The Far East, published in Yokohama by the famous Scottish publisher J. R. Black between 1870 and 1878. So we know this photo is at least as old as that date. The area looks dilapidated and squalid, quite different from the views of Japan on the souvenir photos that were soon sold all over the world. These portrayed Japan as a land of infinite beauty and charm.

Anjincho was named after Miura Anjin (三浦按針), the Japanese name for the English pilot William Adams (1564-1620) who served on the Dutch ship De Liefde which after many travails arrived in Japan on april 19, 1600. Although the Portuguese had been sailing to Japan since 1542, the De Liefde was the first Dutch ship to make it to Japan, while Adams was the first Englishman.

Adams, who was born at Gillingham, in Kent, had studied shipbuilding, astronomy and navigation, and served under Sir Francis Drake before becoming a pilot. In 1598 he signed up with a fleet of five merchant ships funded by Rotterdam merchants to develop trade relations in Asia.

Only the De Liefde managed to reach Japan, and then barely. When it finally reached land in what is today Usuki City in Oita Prefecture, just nine of the 24 surviving crew members could even walk.

Adams eventually earned the trust and friendship of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), who was attracted by his knowledge of Western shipbuilding and nautical navigation. After building two Western style ships for the shogun, Adams became his advisor on trade. He was given hatamoto (personal retainer to the Shogun) status, which made him a samurai, and received the name Miura Anjin, as well as a large estate in Hemi (逸見), now part of Yokosuka City. Adams is the only foreigner ever to have been a hatamoto.

Adams also had a residence in Edo‘s Nihonbashi. In his memory, a small area here was named after him, Anjincho.¹ The location where his house used to be, 1-10 Nihonbashi-Muromachi, was designated a historic site in 1930. A simple monument, erected in 1951 and tightly squeezed between two buildings, can be found here.² It is near the A1 exit of the Mitsukoshimae subway station (Ginza and Hanzomon lines), just North East of Nihonbashi Bridge. The Google map below shows the location of this monument.

The area is not only famous because of Adams. About half a century after the death of Adams, in 1673, an ambitious man by the name of Mitsui Takatoshi (三井高利, 1622–1694), opened a large gofukuya (kimono shop) nearby where this photo was taken.³ This business would eventually grow into the international department store chainMitsukoshi, while Mitsui himself became the founder of what is now known as the Mitsui conglomerate. The first private bank in Japan, Mitsui Bank, was founded by this company on July 1, 1876, just four years after this photo was printed in The Far East.

¹ Japan Local Government Centre, Japan-UK Memorial Seminar William Adams, St Mary Magdalene Church, Gillingham, ME7 1SS. Retrieved on 2009-07-03.

² Chuo City Tourism Association, Site of Miura Anjin’s Mansion (Japanese. Retrieved on 2009-07-03.

³ 古今・お江戸日本橋。日本橋”町”物語（町々の歴史） – 室町・本町。Retrieved on 2009-07-03.

⁴ Map showing how Anjincho has changed.

Photographer: Unknown
Publisher: Unknown
Medium: Albumen Print
Image Number: 80421-0005
Quote this number when you contact us about licensing this image

Thumbnail URL: http://oldphotosjapan.com/images/570t.jpg

Posted by Kjeld Duits • 2009-07-03

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