1810 Bunkindo Ukiyo-e View of Chinese Ship

This is a c. 1810 ukiyo-e woodblock depiction of a Chinese ship of the sort that traded at Nagasaki during the Tokugawa Era policy of isolation (sakoku), a classic theme in the Nagasaki-e genre. Although strictly closed to traders from most countries, Japan did conduct some (strictly controlled) foreign trade with Dutch and Chinese merchants at Nagasaki, which permitted a degree of foreign interaction and exchange.

A Closer Look

The view depicts a Chinese ship, using the character 唐 (Tang/Tō), as in the Chinese Tang Dynasty (7th - 9th century CE), an antiquated but common referent for China and Chinese people in Japan. This reflected both Japanese reverence for the art, culture, and language of the Tang Era, when Chinese influence on Japan peaked, as well as veiled disrespect for the contemporary 'barbarian' Manchu rulers of China, the Qing.

The ship's flags, sails, and exterior present a colorful and memorable image. The 'fish eye' towards the front of the ship was a distinguishing feature of Chinese vessels. Text to the right of the ship describes its dimensions and capacity, but the bulk of the text, at top, lists destinations of outgoing ships and distances, starting with those closest to Nagasaki and moving to those further away:

1. Chongming Island (at the mouth of the Yangzi River)
2. Shanghai
3. Zhapu
4. Putuoshan (an island with a significant Buddhist history, especially in the transmission of Buddhism to Japan)
5. Ningbo
6. Nanjing
7. Quanzhou
8. Dengzhou (登州, an ancient and somewhat inexact term referring to the Shandong Peninsula)
9. Fuzhou
10. Xiamen
11. Beijing
12. Zhangzhou
13. Taiwan
14. Guangdong
15. Quảng Nam (廣南) in central Vietnam, especially the port of Hội An, where overseas Japanese traders had a significant presence
16. Eastern Capital (東京) or Tōkyō in Japanese, though not the modern city; this could be a reference to Edo (the Tokugawa capital which later became Tokyo), but more likely means Kaifeng or Luoyang, ancient capitals in central China, or perhaps Hanoi, known as Đông Kinh in the 15 - 18th centuries.

Nagasaki-e (長崎繪)

Nagasaki-e is a sub-genre of ukiyo-e woodblock prints that took the interactions between Japanese and foreigners (Chinese and Dutch) at Nagasaki as its subject, along with related subjects, such as exotic foreign goods brought by foreign traders. The genre became popular starting in the 1720s, gaining popularity in the 1750s, and reflects a distinct Chinese influence, both in the material used (initially 'Chinese-style' drafting paper called gasenshi in Japanese) and in style (resembling Chinese nenga or nianhua 年画, traditionally produced for Lunar New Year celebrations). Though usually indicating the printer, the artists of these works are generally unknown, likely because they were amateurs and at least sometimes were foreigners. Still, Nagasaki-e proved popular among the Japanese, often being sold as souvenirs for visitors to the port city. They provided an important peek into the outside world for Japanese, at least of a certain social class, during the Tokugawa period and presaged the later Yokohama-e that became wildly popular in the 1860s.

A Small Opening to the World

For most of the Edo or Tokugawa Era (1600 - 1868), Japan operated under Sakoku (鎖国, 'Locked Country') policies, where foreign trade and interaction were allowed with the Dutch and Chinese at Nagasaki (more specifically at an artificial island in Nagasaki Bay called Dejima, 出島) and through other tightly constrained channels, but otherwise were forbidden to prevent potentially troublesome foreign ideas like Christianity from undermining Tokugawa rule. Nevertheless, some Japanese intellectuals, particularly of the 'Dutch Learning' (Rangaku) School, were aware of developments in the outside world, and the Tokugawa became quietly but increasingly concerned about foreign threats. Whalers, adventurers, and would-be traders from Russia, Europe, and the United States appeared on Japan's shores with increasing frequency in the late 18th and early 19th centuries (including a group of American ships sailing under a Dutch flag during the Napoleonic Wars).

Publication History and Census

No publication information is provided aside from the seal of the printer Bunkindō (文錦堂) at bottom-left. Given the known works of that firm and based on the content, it can be roughly dated to the early 19th century. This view went through several printings and was sometimes paired with a similar depiction of a Dutch ship (also sold by us), though the two are usually seen separately in institutional collections. Outside of Japan, an example of this view is held by the National Museum of Taiwan History, with an alternate printing, also by Bunkindō, held by the Dutch Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen. Within Japan, examples are held by the Nichibunken (International Research Center for Japanese Studies), Tokyo National Museum, Kobe City Museum, National Museum of Japanese History, and the Fukuoka City Museum. The Hong Kong Maritime Museum holds a similar example by a different printer (Daiyu 大由). Several other prints from the late Tokugawa period have similar themes and titles (such as 唐船之圖 and 唐船入津の圖) but are distinct from the present view.