東京

I believe this photo dates between 1877 and 1882. Written on the bottom right of the card is "Principal Street", on top of "Ginza, Tokio". This is the famous Renga-gai (bricktown or brick street) in Ginza, Tokyo. It was an experiment at completely redeveloping a neighborhood in fireproof brick. In 1872 yet another massive fire spread through Tokyo. Ginza Renga-gai was completed in 1877, designed by British architect and engineer T J Waters (Japanese). The street itself was a first for Tokyo. Pedestrian areas are separated from wheeled traffic, and gas lamps light the road at night. Arcades visibile on the opposite side of the street were copied from Tuscany, while the entire street sceen evoked Regents Street in London. Unfortunately Waters' northern design skills created buildings that baked their occupants in Tokyo's hot summer months. The street itself flooded horribly in Tokyo's typhoon season. The brick neighborhood was not expanded beyond Ginza, for these reasons or perhaps simply because it was too abnormal for Japanese people to live in. Renga-gai was destroyed by the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923. This photo predates the streetcar line visible in the Edo-Tokyo Museum model. A horse-drawn streetcar was installed in 1882, according to "This Book Will Teach You All About Architecture" (建築のすべてがわかかる本, 2007), which I pulled most of this information from. The colorization of this photo seems totally fanciful. I haven't found evidence of anything but beigish or red color for the buildings.

Meijitaisho.net has the same photo in black and white. They date it around 1877. Meijitaisho points out the Hattori Watch Shop (服部時計店) on the left which closed in 1894. They also notice the very top of the tower of Asano News (朝野新聞社社屋) jutting above the watch shop. They peg the photo location as looking north from the Ginza-8 intersection, underneath the Capital Expressway. Here.

This photo was discussed in the Flickr Commons research thread. I've also discussed it on my blog, combining the information.

Hi, this photo has featured in one of the many discussion threads in the Flickr Commons group, and we would love it if you would also add it to the group pool!

Now:

NYTimes has story from Sept 27, 1912 about Japanese Typhoon: query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A0DE5DF133CE633A...

I doubt this is the 1912 typhoon you mentioned. I can't imagine how a typhoon that came ashore in Osaka could still have enough force to toss boats in Tokyo. I'd like to figure out when this typhoon was - best guess I have after a couple hours of web searching (in Japanese and English) is 1917, but that's outside of LoC's target range of 1910 to 1915. I posted some info on the Meiji Maru photo.

I don't think the boat was anchored on the coast. It looks more like a river boat or a small inland fishing boat that was probably anchored a mile inland and was raised up by either a wave surge or flooding. There could be a little river very nearby.

Please reconsider retitling this photo to spell out Japanese. The abbreviation chosen is offensive to many and reverts to the dismissive terminology used during WWII and is out of place in this day and age. -- Seen on your photo stream. (?)

Thanks for understanding that no offense is intended. We retain the original title of a photograph as part of preserving the historical record. The Bain News Service photo titles are available from several sources—typed in the set of caption cards consulted while making the scans, hand-written on an older set of cards, and etched on the negatives themselves. In this case, the abbreviated term is the only form found.

The "Prince Hotta" referenced here is most likely Hotta Masayoshi (d. 1864, negotiated the first US-Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce with Townsend Harris) or his successors.

Another shot by Kusakabe, further in, courtesy of Nagasaki University.

Now?:

This photograph is featured in the Indicommons.org post Traveling Photography.