Foreigners from Five Nations at a Banquet (Gokakoku ijin shuen no zu) 1861

Utagawa Yoshikazu made this woodblock print, Foreigners from Five Nations at a Banquet, in Japan sometime in the mid-19th century. It depicts a formal dinner party, with the guests identified as people from different countries. This print gives us a window into a complex moment in Japanese history. After centuries of isolation, Japan was being forced to open its doors to trade and diplomacy with the West. Yoshikazu’s print reveals the fascination and the anxieties that this encounter produced. The artist painstakingly renders the clothing and hairstyles of his foreign subjects, but also seems to exaggerate their features. The setting is neither fully Western nor fully Japanese, and the artist’s use of perspective is somewhat awkward. Prints like these were made for a mass audience, eager to learn about the wider world, and they offer invaluable insights into the social and cultural impact of globalization. As historians, we can use sources like trade records, diplomatic correspondence, and newspaper accounts to understand this moment more fully.