Tokyo 1871
Birth of a Nation
This rare photo from 1871 shows Tokyo’s Nihonbashi Bridge made famous in countless woodblock prints. A year after Austrian photographer Michael Moser shot this scene, the bridge was torn down and rebuilt.
Kobe 1871
Battling Japan's Typhoons
In July 1871 a strong typhoon devastated western Japan. It was one of the first strong typhoons that foreigners in the newly opened foreign settlements experienced and it shocked them tremendously.
Nagano 1880s
Nakasendō Highway
A traveller observes the Kisogawa River near Agematsu Juku, the thirty-eighth of the sixty-nine stations of the Nakasendō, now located in Kiso, Nagano Prefecture.
Shizuoka 1880s
Bridge on the Tōkaidō
A bridge on the Tōkaidō with Mount Fuji in the back. Bridges on the Tōkaidō were far more common than is generally thought.
Shizuoka 1860s
Piggybacking the Tōkaidō's Mightiest Rivers
Japanese porters carrying travelers across a wide river. For centuries this was the only way to cross several rivers on the storied Tōkaidō highway.
