What term names ukiyo-e prints of foreigners and scenes in Yokohama?

Ukiyo-e prints of foreigners and scenes in Yokohama are called Yokohama-e.

Yokohama-e emerged after the port of Yokohama opened to foreign trade in 1859. Japanese audiences were fascinated by the unfamiliar visitors, ships, clothing, architecture, customs, and technologies associated with the treaty port. Print designers—especially artists connected with the Utagawa school—turned that curiosity into a substantial late-Edo genre.

The images could be documentary, fanciful, comic, or openly sensational. They showed foreign merchants, diplomats, sailors, families, military figures, animals, buildings, and port activity. Some prints attempted to record new realities, while others relied on hearsay and imaginative stereotypes, so they should not always be read as accurate portraits of foreigners.

More than 800 different Yokohama-e designs were produced, and the genre declined in the 1880s as photography, newspapers, and other modern media changed how people encountered international news. Yokohama-e is therefore tied to a specific place and historical moment, unlike aizuri-e, which names a predominantly blue printing style, or musha-e, which names warrior subject matter.

The suffix “-e” means “picture,” making the term a literal description of Yokohama pictures.