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I think for now I will leave it as is. I guess one would need to get his hands on some newspapers or municipal documents of the time to investigate the case thoroughly.

Thank you for bringing the Kanazawa post-completion photo to my attention. I do have it in my digital archive, but up till now I’ve never looked at it so closely.

I’ve recently finished analyzing the visual evolution of the Hyakudan area and the Railway Station came next. The photogrpahs in the “The Far East” (1872) show the surroundings of the station as highly underdeveloped. There aren’t many images taken from the Bentenbashi perspective or showing that side of the station, which makes the visual verification more difficult. There are two photos taken after 1873 (the arch-shaped corridor connecting the second floors of the two station buildings is visible) – one might be by Suzuki Shinichi, the other probably by Usui Shusaburo – that don’t include any utility poles, just gas lamps. The other available images are most likely from the 1880s, but are quite similar to Uchida’s, therefore it might suggest the area didn’t progress significantly during those years. These are just some random ideas of mine.

Then I came up with another aproach – the Bentenbashi leads to Honmachi-dori, so the telegraph lines seen in the photo should be connected to the utility poles on that street. I found literally one example that might be pre-1880. The other photographs of locations on Honmachi-dori that feature any single-line utility pole are certainly post-1875, most of them from the 1880s-1890s.

To summarise – this photograph is giving me a headache.

Ten years later and I’ve returned to raise some doubts about the provenance of the article’s main photo. I know it is a popular image of the Yokohama Railway Station, featured both in Terry Bennett’s book, as well as in the Nagasaki Database, which states it is part of a Uchida Kuichi’s Album. But is it really Uchida’s work? He died in 1875, however isn’t the area captured in the photo a little too much “electrical”? Especially the multi-level utility poles to the right. I thought that electrification of Yokohama was around mid-1880s.

While in the Marines I had the opportunity to visit Peace Park. It was a heartbreaking place to see and witness what war does ! What humans are capable of doing to each other!

雲は咲き 森に流れる 湊川
葵は巡り 緑に灯る

kumo wa saki
mori ni nagareru
minatogawa
aoi wa meguri
midori ni tomoru

the harbour’s stream runs
with clouds flowering away
over the trees’ tide
and carries the mallow float
like a lantern in the green

de havenstroom loopt
met de bloeiende wolken
boven de bossen
en draagt de malvedrijver
als een lantaarn in het groen

朧雲 竜の幻 うねる道
震える木陰 明日を描く

oborogumo
ryu no maboroshi
uneru michi
hurueru kokage
ashita wo egaku

a dragon’s blue ghost
winds and rolls along the path
of uncertain clouds
if the pensive trees tremble
with tomorrow’s memory

een blauwe draakgeest
windt en rolt langs de paden
van twijfelwolken
als de peinzende bomen
van de oude toekomst trillen

晴れの橋 葵の衣 返り咲く
侘び茶の調べ 川面に踊る

hare no hashi
aoi no koromo
kaerizaku
wabicha no shirabe
kawamo ni odoru

On the blissful bridge
mallow’s dresses with spirits
blossom once again
and follow the grey pavane
or the brevity of tea

Op de heldere brug
bloesemen de malvejapon
opnieuw met geesten
en volgen de grijze pavane
of de bondigheid van thee

My grandfather had vivid memories of watching young women coal his troop ship in Nagasaki while on their way to the Philippines in 1915. He also spoke about how little food their lunches contained, a small box of rice with vegetables, and how it would sustain them. He was raised on a farm and he knew something about hard labor, and it created a lifelong memory for him.

Yes, I figured you’d know about it. Are you a frequent shopper there?

姿なく 星さえ果てる 雲の森
水面に響く 八重の山影

sugata naku
hoshi sae hateru
kumo no mori
minamo ni hibiku
yae no yamakage

No shadow twinkles
and every star fades away
in the leafy clouds
if mountains of canticles
always whirl on the water

geen schaduw fonkelt
en de sterren vervagen
in het wolkenbos
als bergen van lofliedjes
op het water warrelen

花なき児 万の山に 向かう橋
茶屋の彩り 帳を照らす

hana naki ko
yorozu no yama ni
mukau hashi
chaya no irodori
tobari wo terasu

a flowerless child
simply waddles on the bridge
to all spirits’ hill
when the tea shop shines away
against the fog of reverie

een kind zonder bloemen
waggelt gewoon op de brug
naar de geestenheuvel
wanner de theewinkel mistig
tegen de mijmerij wegschijnt

I’m late to the conversation, but in the history classes I took at Sophia Univ. a few years ago, the red light district nearest to the treaty port was roughly where the baseball stadium is today. This is much closer than Eiraku-cho, although it may have moved to Eiraku-cho after the major fire that burned down most of the buildings in the stadium area. On the other hand, I don’t remember hearing anything about there being houses of ill repute in Takashima-cho 2-chome, that’s news to me.

You might be wondering why I’m replying to this blog post now. It so happens that I was flipping through a stack of old Yokosuka and Yokohama ehagaki in a store in Jimbocho today, and found a couple featuring women that said something like “building no. 9” in Yokohama. When I Googled the term, this site was one of the first that came up, a funny coincidence.

As far as why it’s hard to find good sources of info on them, it doesn’t fit well with the moral code of the time, whether it was the morality that Japan inherited from China or the Christianity that Western nations brought. The red light districts which received official blessing during the Edo Period, such as Yoshiwara and a couple in Osaka, were always located off the beaten path (Yoshiwara was the second, if memory is right, since Edo expanded to encompass the first one). While prostitution was accepted, the Shogun wanted it controlled in a confined area so it could be monitored. They were less accepting of unofficial red light districts, although they did exist—I vaguely remember one being at Fukagawa.

八雲鳴り 桜の枝垂れ 揺れる夢
枯れ葉の路に 萎えては光る

yakumo nari
sakura no shidare
yureru yume
kareha no michi ni
naetewa hikaru

the lilac willows
wave away with an ocean
of clouds’ ringing cups
if dreams fade away to loom
on the greyish lane of leaves

de lila wilgen
golven met een oceaan
van wolkenklokken
als de verloren dromen
het grijze laantje volgen