Express Train to Industrialization: Japan’s First Railway Line

US Commodore Matthew Perry. (© AFP/Jiji)

A karakuri ningyō created by Tanaka Hisashige. Able to write characters, the doll dips its brush in ink and can reproduce various kanji in a lifelike manner. (© Jiji)

Part of Takanawa Embankment has been designated as a national historic site. (© Jiji)

An imagined rendering of the Tokyo railway by Mōsai Yoshitora, printed the year before the line began operations, demonstrates the expectations of the Japanese public. (Courtesy National Diet Library)

Shinbashi Station in 1872, shortly before the start of rail operations. Designed by US architect Richard Bridgens, it became used only for freight after Tokyo Station opened in 1914, but was destroyed in the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923. (Courtesy Japanese National Railways Settlement Corporation; © Jiji)

The former Shinbashi Station, reconstructed in Shiodome in 2003. During excavation work ahead of redevelopment, original platforms and other remains of the railway were discovered, and some of these are on display in the building. The area has been designated as a national historic site. (© Jiji)

A print by Utagawa Hiroshige III depicting the start of Japan’s first rail service, from Tokyo’s Shinbashi to Yokohama, in 1872. (Courtesy of the Minato City Local History Museum)

Artist Kawanabe Kyōsai imagined Japan’s first train en route to paradise. (Courtesy Seikadō Bunko Art Museum; © DNP Art Communications)

Japan’s first steam locomotive is a nationally designated important cultural property. It was constructed in 1871, and began traveling between Shinbashi and Yokohama in 1872. (Courtesy the Railway Museum)