Illustration of a Railway Coach on Ginza Brick Masonry Street, one of the Famous Spots of Tokyo (Tokyo Meisho no Uchi Ginza-tsū Renga-zukuri Tetsudō Basha Ōfuku Zu)
Painted by Utagawa Kuniteru II 1882 (Meiji 15) Tokyo Shiryō Collection 0422-C28

This illustration shows a Ginza street around ten years after "Realistic Illustration of the Brick Masonry of Main Street, Ginza, Tokyo". During the time this illustration was made, the many vacant brick buildings became shops and businesses and the area later developed into Tokyo's finest downtown area.



The cultural heritage that came from abroad continued unceasingly to transform the customs and lifestyles of the people. Changes in the street traffic were also a part of this. The city traffic in the Edo period was fundamentally made up of foot traffic and palanquins, but once the new age came, vehicles such as the horse and carriage and rickshaws appeared all around, and horse tramcars started running on new tram lines.
In 1882 (Meiji 15) the horse tram line in this picture that connected Shinbashi to Nihonbashi was opened. The stations where the trams stopped were generally limited to Shiodome Headquarters, Shinbashi and the tram terminus. Without any stations in between, passengers were able to disembark at their desired point by informing the conductor.
The building at the left edge of the picture is the office building for the Asano Newspaper and under this is a rickshaw factory. The gas lamps seen on the roadside, a feature of civilization and enlightenment, were completed in Meiji 7.

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