Englishmen (Igirisujin) - Utagawa Yoshikazu

A classic Yokohama-e woodblock print by Utagawa Yoshikazu, depicting two Englishmen in nineteenth-century attire against a maritime backdrop.

This woodblock print, titled Englishmen (Igirisujin), belongs to the Yokohama-e genre, a category of ukiyo-e produced during the late Edo period. These prints documented the arrival of foreigners in Japan following the opening of the port of Yokohama in 1859. Utagawa Yoshikazu, a student of Utagawa Kuniyoshi, captured the curiosity of the Japanese public regarding Western visitors through these depictions.

The composition features two men dressed in mid-nineteenth-century European attire. One figure sits on a simple wooden stool, holding a flagpole that bears a stylised Union Jack. The other stands beside him, wearing a top hat and a long coat. Behind them, a large sailing vessel occupies the sea, providing context for their arrival. The artist employs a flat, graphic approach to the figures, typical of the period, while the colour palette remains restrained, relying on muted greens, blues, and earthy tones to define the clothing and the maritime setting.

Such prints functioned as visual news reports for a population largely unfamiliar with Western customs, fashion, and technology. The exaggerated facial features and the specific attention to the details of the clothing reflect the artist's attempt to interpret foreign subjects through a traditional Japanese aesthetic lens. The inclusion of the ship serves to ground the figures in the reality of the international trade that defined the era. This work offers a glimpse into the cultural exchange and the fascination with the outside world that characterised the final years of the shogunate.