PICTURE OF MEN AND WOMEN FROM ALL NATIONS (BANKOKU DANJO JINBUTSU ZUE), 1861, UTAGAWA YOSHIIKU (1833-1904), NISHIKI-E TRIPTYCH, INK AND COLOUR ON PAPER, 37 X 75 CM. PRIVATE COLLECTION – TAASA Review September 2022

Western newspapers and magazines.

They wear day dresses and bonnets, their wide crinoline hoop skirts fashionable at the time. The vertical cartouches identify many of the Westerners: in the lower right, the man seated in a chair holding a wine goblet and the woman alongside holding a bottle, are identified as French; the black hatted and uniformed man alongside them is labelled as a ‘Hollander’ (Dutchman); and next to him in a blue uniform is an Englishman.

The mounted man to his right is a Russian whose wife is alongside, accompanied by an American woman whose male counterpart is the curly haired figure in uniform on the lower left, clearly modelled on a Western engraving. There are other foreigners apart from Westerners...