Teaching Guide for Ready, Set, Yokohama!

Explore dynamic modes of change in a treaty port through our modern interpretation of Toyokuni IV’s 1872 “Catalogue of the Trip to Yokohama in Sugoroku.”

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

1. Understand the impact of the dramatic technological, infrastructural, and cultural changes to everyday life in Japan after the Meiji Restoration in 1868.

2. Analyze how those changes were depicted in popular culture, focusing on an 1872 sugoroku board game by Utagawa Toyokuni IV about a race from Tokyo to Yokohama and back again.

3. Evaluate what this game can tell us about the relationship between technological modernization and cultural Westernization in Japan during the nineteenth century.

Discussion Questions

Meiji Modernization and Everyday Life

What aspects of life in the Meiji period does this board game give us access to? What sort of actions or activities did you see people taking part in? Are these activities presented as new or old?
Where do you see evidence of earlier modes of travel or habits in the board game? What squares feel the most influenced by new forms of technology or culture? Is there a pattern to what is associated with modernity and what is associated with tradition? Does that pattern match or defy your expectations?
How is religion presented in this board game? What differences did you find between temples and shrines? What about similarities? Can we make any inferences about the role of religion in Japanese life at this time from this board game?
Why do you think the Yokohama Yoshiwara is the center of the game, and the final destination of this trip to Yokohama?
In what circumstances do you think that this board game was played? Who was playing it, and why?

Transportation Technology

What types of transportation are used to travel in the board game? How does the speed of that technology relate to the way it is used as a travel mechanic? Why?
Why do you think you can use a telegraph to travel to Yokohama in the game? What does this tell us about the impact or understanding of the telegraph at this time?
How do you think the physical experience of traveling changed as a result of these new technologies? What would it have done to the way the various passengers experienced space? Can you find any clues in the images or mechanics of the board game?
Who is traveling on these new forms of transportation? How might someone’s social class or nationality have impacted how they interacted with these different forms of transportation? Would different forms of travel have been more accessible to some people than others?
Are these new transportation technologies presented as Western importations or Japanese innovations in the board game? Why do you think that is?

Treaty Ports and International Relations

According to this board game, what are some of the things you might see on a trip to Yokohama? What does that tell us about how people thought about the city in the early Meiji period?
Treaty ports are often known as semi-colonial spaces, where European and American residents had more power and influence than Japanese residents due to the unequal treaties. Do you see any evidence of that in this board game? Do you see anything that contradicts that idea?
What spaces in the board game are presented as foreign, and what spaces are presented as Japanese? Can you find a pattern? What might that pattern mean?
How does this board game reflect Meiji attitudes about the wider world? How do you think the rapid modernization of this period impacted how Japanese people understood the international system and their place in it?

Class Procedure (Playing during class):

In this version of the class students play through part of the game as an in-class activity. They should prepare by reading one of the suggested related readings or another relevant text. You may find it valuable to show specific squares or locations from the board game during class. You can find a digital version of the sugoroku here to either use in class or to take screenshots of for a presentation.

Introductory Discussion - The Basics (10 min)

Make sure your students know the basic information about Utagawa Toyokuni IV’s Catalog of the Trip to Yokohama sugoroku.

When: 1872
Author: Utagawa Toyokuni IV
Document: sugoroku travel board game, woodblock print
Audience: male Japanese consumers

Ask students to think about how the nature of this document influences how we can use it as historical evidence.

Whose perspective is the game written from, and why would that matter?
In what ways do you think the game is a reliable resource for learning about Japanese life during the Meiji period?
In what ways might it be less reliable?

Play the game (20 minutes)

Divide students into groups of 3-4
Have them play the game together on one student’s laptop until they get to Yokohama
Since the time of play can vary, you may want to set a hard time limit for the amount of time you want this section to take in class

Discussion Reporting (10-15 minutes)

Ask students to share the highlights of their trip or the most impactful location they visited with the full class. Depending on their responses, you can use this opportunity to tie their observations to the theme of your class. For example, if they focus on the mechanics of moving in the game, you can discuss what that tells us about changes to transportation technology. What could the experiences that jumped out to them as the most interesting teach them about life in this time?

Thematic Discussion Questions (10-15 minutes)

Depending on your class themes and previous readings or discussions, select one or two of the most relevant discussion questions from the discussion questions section to fill out the remainder of the class time. These questions can be answered via large or small group discussions.

Minute Paper (optional, 5 minutes)

If you want to get a sense of what each student took away from their experience with the game, you can end the class by asking the students to write a one-minute paper answering the question: What was the most important thing you learned from our discussion of this board game?

Teaching Guide for Ready, Set, Yokohama!

Explore dynamic modes of change in a treaty port through our modern interpretation of Toyokuni IV’s 1872 “Catalogue of the Trip to Yokohama in Sugoroku.”

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

1. Understand the impact of the dramatic technological, infrastructural, and cultural changes to everyday life in Japan after the Meiji Restoration in 1868.

2. Analyze how those changes were depicted in popular culture, focusing on an 1872 sugoroku board game by Utagawa Toyokuni IV about a race from Tokyo to Yokohama and back again.

3. Evaluate what this game can tell us about the relationship between technological modernization and cultural Westernization in Japan during the nineteenth century.

Discussion Questions

Meiji Modernization and Everyday Life

What aspects of life in the Meiji period does this board game give us access to? What sort of actions or activities did you see people taking part in? Are these activities presented as new or old?

How is religion presented in this board game? What differences did you find between temples and shrines? What about similarities? Can we make any inferences about the role of religion in Japanese life at this time from this board game?

Why do you think the Yokohama Yoshiwara is the center of the game, and the final destination of this trip to Yokohama?

In what circumstances do you think that this board game was played? Who was playing it, and why?

Transportation Technology

What types of transportation are used to travel in the board game? How does the speed of that technology relate to the way it is used as a travel mechanic? Why?

Why do you think you can use a telegraph to travel to Yokohama in the game? What does this tell us about the impact or understanding of the telegraph at this time?

How do you think the physical experience of traveling changed as a result of these new technologies? What would it have done to the way the various passengers experienced space? Can you find any clues in the images or mechanics of the board game?

Who is traveling on these new forms of transportation? How might someone’s social class or nationality have impacted how they interacted with these different forms of transportation? Would different forms of travel have been more accessible to some people than others?

Are these new transportation technologies presented as Western importations or Japanese innovations in the board game? Why do you think that is?

Treaty Ports and International Relations

According to this board game, what are some of the things you might see on a trip to Yokohama? What does that tell us about how people thought about the city in the early Meiji period?

Treaty ports are often known as semi-colonial spaces, where European and American residents had more power and influence than Japanese residents due to the unequal treaties. Do you see any evidence of that in this board game? Do you see anything that contradicts that idea?

What spaces in the board game are presented as foreign, and what spaces are presented as Japanese? Can you find a pattern? What might that pattern mean?

How does this board game reflect Meiji attitudes about the wider world? How do you think the rapid modernization of this period impacted how Japanese people understood the international system and their place in it?

Class Procedure (Playing during class):

Introductory Discussion - The Basics (10 min)

Make sure your students know the basic information about Utagawa Toyokuni IV’s Catalog of the Trip to Yokohama sugoroku.

When: 1872

Author: Utagawa Toyokuni IV

Document: sugoroku travel board game, woodblock print

Audience: male Japanese consumers

Ask students to think about how the nature of this document influences how we can use it as historical evidence.

Whose perspective is the game written from, and why would that matter?

In what ways do you think the game is a reliable resource for learning about Japanese life during the Meiji period?

In what ways might it be less reliable?

Play the game (20 minutes)

Divide students into groups of 3-4

Have them play the game together on one student’s laptop until they get to Yokohama

Since the time of play can vary, you may want to set a hard time limit for the amount of time you want this section to take in class

Discussion Reporting (10-15 minutes)

Thematic Discussion Questions (10-15 minutes)

Depending on your class themes and previous readings or discussions, select one or two of the most relevant discussion questions from the discussion questions section to fill out the remainder of the class time. These questions can be answered via large or small group discussions.

Minute Paper (optional, 5 minutes)

If you want to get a sense of what each student took away from their experience with the game, you can end the class by asking the students to write a one-minute paper answering the question: What was the most important thing you learned from our discussion of this board game?

Related Readings:

Ann Marie L. Davis. “Introduction.” Imagining Prostitution in Modern Japan, 1850-1913, University of Oklahoma Libraries, Lexington Books (2019): 1-39.

Edward Seidensticker. “Civilization and Enlightenment” and “The Double Life.” In Tokyo from Edo to Showa 1867–1989: The Emergence of the World's Greatest City, 43-101, 102-150. North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle Publishing, 2010.

John Andrew Black. "Railways." In A Short History of Transport in Japan from Ancient Times to the Present, 155–182. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2022. https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0281.06.

John W. Dower. Yokohama Boomtown: Foreigners in Treaty-Port Japan (1859–1872). Visualizing Cultures, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008. https://visualizingcultures.mit.edu/yokohama/index.html.

Kenichi Ohno. "Transition from Edo to Meiji" and "Importing and Absorbing Technology." [1] In The History of Japanese Economic Development: Origins of Private Dynamism and Policy Competence, 35–45, 46-60. London: Routledge, 2017.

Leslie Helm. Yokohama Yankee: My Family's Five Generations as Outsiders in Japan. Seattle: Chin Music Press, 2013.

Steven J. Ericson. The Sound of the Whistle: Railroads and the State in Meiji Japan.[2] Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 1996.

Yuko Sato. "Dressing Up During the Meiji Restoration: A Perspective on Fukusei (Clothing Reform)." In Fashion, Identity, and Power in Modern Asia, edited by Kyunghee Pyun and Aida Yuen Wong, 29–55. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97199-5_2.