南置賜郡米沢市街ノ図

About this print

This picture shows the streets of Yonezawa, Yamagata. It is one sheet from an album of lithographs based on sketches by the Western-style painter Takahashi Yuichi, made at the request of the prefectural governor Mishima Michitsune. The album, published in 1885 (Meiji 18), depicts new roads in three prefectures, Tochigi, Fukushima, and Yamagata, in 128 pictures, and this one is in the Yamagata volume. The record gives its title as Mishima Michitsune Sanken Doro Kaishu Shozu (Selected Pictures of Mishima Michitsune's Road Works in Three Prefectures) and writes the artist's name with a different character for "ichi."

Yonezawa prospered for about 270 years as the castle town of the Uesugi family, from Uesugi Kagekatsu's arrival in 1601 until the Meiji Restoration. As the first governor of Yamagata Prefecture, Mishima built a road from Yonezawa over the mountains to Fukushima and completed the Kuriko Tunnel in 1881. Emperor Meiji gave this road the name Bansei Tairo (Road for All Ages).

Yonezawa Castle was torn down in 1873, and the site is now Matsugasaki Park. Uesugi Shrine, dedicated to Uesugi Kenshin, stands on the site of the honmaru, the castle's central enclosure, and the moats around it are famous for their cherry blossoms.

Glossary