Illustration of the Prosperity of Ginza, Tokyo's Brick Masonry, Illustration of a Shinbashi Railway Steam Locomotive (Tokyo Ginza Rengaseki Hanei no Zu, Shinbashi Tetsudō Jōkisha no Zu)
Painted by Utagawa Kunisada III 1873 (Meiji 6) Tokyo Shiryō Collection 0422-C35

This is a top and bottom work showing the rail line and the area of Ginza that were characteristic of civilization and enlightenment. The upper painting depicts a steam locomotive departing the Shinbashi station platform for Yokohama and the lower painting, by the fact that the Matsuda restaurant can be seen, depicts a street in Ginza 1-chome.


The first railway in Japan connecting Shinbashi to Yokohama was approximately 30 kilometers long and ran its course in 53 minutes. The number of train journeys per day was nine trips to and from, and the fare (for every section of the line) for first class was 1 yen, 12 sen, 5 ri, the fare for second class was 75 sen and lower class was 37 sen, 5 ri. Even a lower class ticket was quite a sum, being enough to buy around 10kg of rice at the time in Tokyo.
Even so, the following year after its opening, the railway turned a profit and became a commercial success, with an average number of passengers per day of over 4000. With this the railway quickly became accepted. From then, railways were laid down across the country, connecting Osaka to Kobe and also Hokkaido.

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