Object number2025.19

View of Russian Procession Ashore Playing Music

Datec. 1859

Artist Currently Unidentified

CultureJapanese

MediumWoodblock print; ink on paper

DimensionsSheet: 8 9/16 x 11 1/2 in. (21.8 x 29.2 cm)
Image: 7 5/8 x 10 3/8 in. (19.3 x 26.4 cm)

Credit LineGift of Egenolf Gallery Japanese Prints in memory of Herbert Egenolf

Period19th c (Edo period)

Classification(s)

Vassar Exhibitions

Bunmei Kaika: Political Landscape in Early Modern and Modern Japan

Label TextKawaraban (tile prints) were broadsheets typically produced in black and white, providing straightforward reports on current events. View of Russian Procession Ashore Playing Music illustrates an incident on August 22, 1859, when the Russian diplomat Nikolay Muravyov-Amursky led a procession of about forty officers and three hundred armed sailors, with a bugle and drum corps, through the port city of Yokohama to negotiate with Japanese officials about the disputed Sakhalin Island. Kawaraban that portrayed political affairs were dangerous for publishers to produce because of the Tokugawa shogunate’s stance against reporting on incidents related to the government and its officials. While news-related edicts were enforced when necessary, the government maintained a stricter position on the reporting of political content. This resulted in news being anonymously created and published as in the example seen here. By the mid-nineteenth century, the shogunate’s power was weakened to the degree that a sensational event such as Muravyov-Amursky’s procession would have been hard to contain.

Terms

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email loebcollections@vassar.edu