In 1853 four black American ships, two of them steam-powered, entered Edo Bay and demanded that Japan open its ports. Six years later the shogunate chose a village of about a hundred houses to receive the foreigners, hoping to keep them at a distance. That village is now Japan's second city. Twelve stops between the tree that witnessed the treaty signing, the first pier, the brick warehouses, the street of the first gas lamps, the house of silk, Chinatown, the foreigners' cemetery and the hill where British soldiers camped. Approximate audio duration: 20 minutes.
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Yokohama: la aldea de pescadores que Japón le entregó a Occidente
En 1853 cuatro barcos negros estadounidenses, dos de ellos a vapor, entraron en la bahía de Edo y exigieron que Japón abriera sus puertos. Seis años después, el shogunato eligió una aldea de unas cien casas para recibir a los extranjeros, con la esperanza de mantenerlos lejos. Esa aldea es hoy la segunda ciudad de Japón. Doce paradas entre el árbol que vio la firma del tratado, el primer muelle, los almacenes de ladrillo, la calle de los primeros faroles de gas, la casa de la seda, el barrio chino, el cementerio de los extranjeros y la colina donde acamparon los soldados británicos. Duración aproximada de audio: 20 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~20 min of audio · 5.81 km on foot (~1 h 25 min walking) · about 1 h 45 min in total
You are in front of the Nippon Maru, a 1930 training sailing ship, with the skyscrapers of Minato Mirai behind it. Everything you see around you, including the ground beneath your feet, was sea or shipyard not so long ago.
Look south towards the mouth of the bay. In July 1853 four American warships came in that way and anchored off Uraga. Two were steam frigates belching black smoke. The Japanese called them kurofune: the black ships.
In command was Commodore Matthew Perry. He carried a letter from the President of the United States demanding that ports be opened to supply whalers and to tra…
2
The Street of Firsts
You are on Bashamichi, the carriage road. It opened in the 1860s because foreign merchants rode along this street on horseback and in carriages, something the Japanese hardly knew.
Look at the lamps. In 1872 Japan's first gas lamps were lit here, installed by a Japanese businessman with a French engineer. Tokyo got its own two years later.
This street is full of firsts. The country's first ice cream was sold here in 1869. Yokohama published the first daily newspaper in Japanese. Beer, bread, commercial photography and the telegraph all arrived.
Look at the large stone building with a dome. …
3
The Customs Warehouses
You are in front of the two red brick warehouses, Akarenga. Today they hold shops, restaurants and event spaces. They were built between 1911 and 1913 as customs warehouses for the port.
Everything Japan bought from and sold to the world passed through these doors. By then Yokohama was the country's main trading port.
Look at the construction. The warehouses have a brick structure reinforced with iron, and were among the first in Japan with goods lifts and fire extinguishers.
Even so, the 1923 earthquake brought down half of one of them. That is why one is clearly shorter than the other.
A…
4
The Elephant's Trunk
You are at Zou-no-hana, the elephant's trunk. Look at the shape of the breakwater curving over the water: that is where the name comes from.
The first piers of Yokohama port were built here in 1859. The curved breakwater was added a few years later to shelter ships from the waves.
Why here? The 1858 treaty with the United States required the opening of the port of Kanagawa, a town on the Tokaido, the busiest road in Japan.
The shogunate did not want foreigners on a road full of armed samurai. So it chose this fishing village across the bay, isolated by canals. It called it part of Kanagawa …
5
The Treaty Tree
Go into the courtyard of the Yokohama Archives of History and look for the large camphor tree. It is called tamakusu. According to tradition, it is a direct descendant of the tree that stood here in 1854.
In February 1854 Perry returned, as he had promised, with a larger fleet. This time the negotiations took place in the village of Yokohama, in a hall built for the occasion, very close to this tree.
On 31 March the Treaty of Kanagawa was signed. Japan opened two small ports, Shimoda and Hakodate, to supply American ships, and accepted a consul.
It seems little. But it was the end of more t…
6
The Thread That Paid for Everything
You are in front of the Silk Center, home of the Silk Museum. This plot was lot number one of the foreign settlement: the British trading house Jardine Matheson opened its first office here.
The same company had grown rich selling opium in China. In Japan it found another business: silk.
In the 1860s an epidemic wiped out the silkworms of France and Italy. Europe urgently needed silk and silkworm eggs, and Japan had them.
For decades raw silk was Japan's main export. It reached Yokohama from the mountains of the interior, and left from here for Lyon, London and New York.
That money paid fo…
7
The Gateway of Those Who Left
Climb up onto the wooden deck of Osanbashi Pier. The undulations of the floor imitate the surface of the sea. From here you have one of the best views of the port.
The first iron pier was built in 1894. For decades, foreign visitors entered Japan through here, and Japanese left for the world through here.
Students and diplomats left for Europe. But emigrants left too: for Hawaii, for California and, from 1908, for Brazil. Today Brazil has the largest community of Japanese origin outside Japan.
Look at the white suspension bridge in the distance: it is the Bay Bridge, from 1989. And on the o…
8
A Park Made of Rubble
You are in Yamashita Park, facing the sea. Strollers, couples, pigeons. What you are walking on is not solid ground: it is rubble.
On 1 September 1923 the epicentre of the Great Kanto earthquake was very close to here. Yokohama was almost entirely destroyed, proportionally more than Tokyo. Tens of thousands died in the city.
The debris of the fallen buildings was used to fill in the shoreline, and this park was opened on that landfill in 1930. Beneath your feet lies nineteenth-century Yokohama.
In the days after the earthquake something terrible happened. False rumours spread that Koreans w…
9
The Ones Who Could Read
You are in front of the Kanteibyo, the brightly coloured temple dedicated to Guan Yu, a Chinese general deified as the god of loyalty and commerce. All around, hundreds of restaurants and shops: Yokohama's Chinatown, the largest in Japan.
The Chinese arrived in Yokohama with the Western merchants, from 1859. Why? Because of a decisive advantage: they could read Chinese characters, the basis of Japanese writing.
The British and American merchants did not speak Japanese. Their Chinese employees, who came from Hong Kong or Shanghai, could communicate in writing with the Japanese. They were midd…
10
The Englishman Who Did Not Dismount
You are beside the Foreign General Cemetery on Yamate hill. Crosses, stone angels, headstones in English, French, German, Russian. There are thousands of graves of people from dozens of countries.
The cemetery began in 1854. A sailor from Perry's fleet died after falling from a mast, and the commodore asked for a place to bury him overlooking the sea.
One of the graves tells the other side of the opening. It belongs to Charles Lennox Richardson, a British merchant. In September 1862, riding with friends along the Tokaido near the village of Namamugi, he met the procession of a powerful Satsu…
11
Foreign Soldiers on Japanese Soil
You are at the park lookout with a view of the port. Below, the docks, the cranes and the Bay Bridge. It is one of Yokohama's most famous sunsets.
This place has a history that many visitors do not know. From 1863, for more than ten years, British and French troops camped on this hill.
After attacks on foreigners such as the one at Namamugi, the powers decided to protect their citizens with their own soldiers. The shogunate, too weak to refuse, accepted.
Picture it: British redcoats drilling on a Japanese hill. For nationalists it was proof that the country had lost its sovereignty.
The tr…
12
From Village to Second City
You are in front of one of the Western houses of Yamate, such as Berrick Hall, built in 1930 for a British merchant. Arched windows, chimneys, English gardens. Several of these houses can be visited for free.
For forty years foreigners lived in Yokohama in their own settlement, with their own courts, police and rules. Japan could not try them.
In 1899, thanks to the new treaties, the settlement was abolished. Foreigners came under Japanese law. Many stayed on this hill, which kept its character.
The 1923 earthquake destroyed almost all the original houses. The ones you see were rebuilt in t…
How long does the "Yokohama: the Fishing Village Japan Handed to the West" audio tour take?
It has about 20 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 5.81 km walking route (~1 h 25 min on foot). Plan roughly 1 h 45 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "Four Ships That Kept a Country Awake" (coordinates 35.4546, 139.6323). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Yokohama and pick "Yokohama: the Fishing Village Japan Handed to the West". No account required to start.
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No wifi needed · Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean
