汐留鉄道舘　新橋　品川迄一り二十丁

About this print

A train pulls into the station platform, sending up billows of smoke. There is a two-story Western building trimmed in green, and a large roof with a radiating decoration. On the platform a man in Western clothes rests his hand on a child's shoulder, and more people stand farther back. "Shiodome Tetsudokan" in the title means the Shinbashi station (teishaba), which stood in Shiodome. In Tokai Meisho Kaisei Dochuki (Famous Places of the Tokaido, Revised Travel Guide), published in 1875 (Meiji 8), Utagawa Hiroshige III showed Shinbashi through this station. The National Diet Library titles it Kaisei Gojusan Eki (The Fifty-three Stations, Revised).

Shinbashi Station was the Tokyo end of the railway to Yokohama when it opened in 1872 (Meiji 5). It was a Western-style building of wood faced with stone, designed by Richard Bridgens, an American engineer born in England. When Tokyo Station opened in 1914 (Taisho 3), it was renamed Shiodome Station and became a freight station. The station site was made a national Historic Site in 1965 (Showa 40).

Glossary