Thanks for the Latest Acquisition
Because of your support I could purchase a print of Japan's first British-style racetrack
Last week I made an appeal for support in the article Three Extremely Rare Images. I wrote that I discovered several rare prints during my research about the horse racetrack at Ueno Park, but that serious health issues over the past three years exhausted my funds, preventing me from purchasing them.
I specifically described one of these images, an 1863 engraving based on long lost photos, showing the first British-style racetrack in Japan, built before Yokohama’s famous Negishi track.
Thanks to the support of this community I was able to purchase the engraving. It is on its way to Japan, and will arrive in time to be included in the article about the origins of British-style horse racing in Japan, which I am still busy researching.
Even though it is not here yet, I would like to give you a preview. It is a panorama of Yokohama as it looked in late 1862. The racetrack is marked 2. You can see it on both the top and bottom image. Note the fence poles on both sides of the track.
Number 1 is the village where Yokohama’s original villagers were resettled. Number 3 marks the Japanese town, mainly settled by merchants, and number 5 the foreign settlement. Number 4 is the canal around Yokohama, it acted both as a transportation route and a boundary. Bridges across this canal were guarded by Japanese soldiers.
This engraving was published in the September 12, 1863 issue of The Illustrated London News. It was based on a five plate panoramic view of Yokohama by British photographer William Thomas Saunders (1832–1892), who has been called “the most underrated nineteenth-century photographer of the Far East.”1
Saunders arrived in Yokohama in August 1862 and stayed for three months. He shot roughly 90 plates, including this panorama photographed from what is now known as Yamatecho. He was one of the first photographers in Japan, even before Felice Beato (ca. 1832–1909), so his work is of great historical value.
Sadly, his panorama has been lost. Only two plates survive. They can be seen on the site of the Nagasaki University Library. This engraving is therefore extremely valuable. It is the only known print showing Japan’s first British-style racetrack.
In Three Extremely Rare Images I explained that the Duits Collection may be the only collection holding the three photographs of the Shinobazu Grandstand at Tokyo’s Ueno Park. Adding this engraving makes this sub-collection even more valuable as a historical record of early horse racing in Japan.
This print does not come by itself. It is in a bound volume of The Illustrated London News containing all editions published from July through December, 1863. There are hundreds of engravings, including fifteen depicting Japan.2 Fourteen of these are new to the Duits Collection. Truly a wonderful acquisition.
During my research I have been able to find several personal accounts of the very first horse races in Yokohama. Together with this engraving they create a unique historical record of how British-style horse racing started in Japan.
Once again, thank you very much. You really make a difference in helping to preserve the visual heritage of daily life in old Japan.
One More Appeal
There is one more item I came across while researching this series that I wanted to share with you.
It is a beautifully illustrated six plate woodblock print map of Yokohama from 1861, the year before Saunders visited. It was created by Utagawa Sadahide (歌川 貞秀, 1807–1878/1879), one of Japan’s top woodblock print artists, and is well-known as one of the earliest illustrated maps of the newly opened port of Yokohama.3
It is remarkably clear, and features the area where the track was about to be built. As a historical document, it helps place the print of the racetrack into a much richer context. The two prints almost beg to be united.
This map, at this level of quality, generally sells for USD 3,000–6,000. I happened to come across a reputable dealer offering it for USD 960, unusually low due to a few minor damages. However, the overall quality is still very good.
Given my current circumstances and my recent appeal, I would have simply let this pass. But opportunities like this are extremely rare. So I wanted to mention it here in case you have been thinking about supporting Old Photos of Japan, but were not quite ready before.
If this project resonates with you and you would like to be part of it, I would be grateful for your help in uniting this map with the engraving and the photos of the grandstand. Bringing these objects together into a single highly focused collection broadens and enriches the historical record.
Thank you, as always, for reading and for your continued support.
About Old Photos of Japan
Old Photos of Japan preserves the cultural memory of daily life in old Japan and shares it freely with the public — your personal online museum of lived history.
I acquire rare vintage images of Japan between the 1850s and 1960s from all over the world to unite related images that ought to be together. This clarifies their historical significance and enables the creation of focused sub-collections of images that shed light on crucial cultural and historical aspects of Japan.
After nearly two decades of curation, the Duits Collection includes many images that cannot be found together in any other collection.
One day, the images may be publicly exhibited. Until then, I bring them together in this newsletter and the official Old Photos of Japan site, accompanied with detailed research that brings them back to life. Your support, whether it is financial, by sharing articles, or in another manner, helps me do this.
Read more about this project, and me, in Saving a Lost Japan.
Notes
Bennett, Terry (2006). Photography in Japan 1853-1912. Tokyo; Rutland, Vermont; Singapore: Tuttle Publishing, 98.
“Scenes and Sketches in Japan,” engravings of Japan in The Illustrated London News published from July through December of 1863:
Japanese Cavalry
Conveying the Compensation-money for the Murder of Mr. Richardson, to H.M.S. Pearl
Counting the Compensation-money
The Island of Decima [sic]
Attack on the Dutch War-steamer Medusa
The New Levy of Japanese Infantry
The Bombardment of Kagosima [sic]
Entrance to Bay of Kagosima [sic]
Map of the Harbour of Kagosima [sic]
Japanese Ministers of State
Relieving Guard at Yokohama
Map of Simonoseki [sic] Bay
Sulphur Island, opposite Satzuma’s [sic] Dominions
Theatricals on Board H.M.S. Perseus, in Yokohama Bay
View of Yokohama
This map is in the collections of the National Diet Library, National Museum of Japanese History, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, and Waseda University. Outside Japan it is held by the Art Institute of Chicago, British Library, Harvard University (which has only five of the six panels), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), University of British Columbia, and the Wereldmuseum in Leiden, the Netherlands.
Have you thought of launching a GoFundme or similar to raise money?
Wonderful! Is this the Yokohama location that went on to become what we knew as “The Grandstand “ when I was a kid living there? Yamatecho was our neighborhood in Negishi.