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Japanese woodblock prints featuring foreigners that appeared after the opening of ports such as Yokohama to international trade in the mid-nineteenth century are broadly referred to as Yokohama-e (or “Yokohama Pictures”). While there are already seminal studies that document the representation of Western peoples in Yokohama-e, those of Asian peoples have not yet received equal attention. This thesis focuses on a group of prints that include the word “all nations” (bankoku) in their titles, particularly those of Utagawa Yoshiiku. Although these prints are currently considered a type of Yokohama-e, they are distinctively different from typical Yokohama-e in their scope, particularly in its inclusion of many Asian and mythical peoples. This study investigates how this group of “pictures of the peoples of all nations” (bankoku jinbutsu-zu) functioned as popular guides to the nations of the world and reflected the domestic new awareness for Japan’s role within it.

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abstract: After the opening of Japan in the mid-1800s many foreigners flocked to the nation. San Franciscan Helen Hyde (1868-1919) joined the throng in 1899. Unlike many of her predecessors, however, she went as a single woman and was so taken with Japan she made it her home over the span of fourteen years. While a number of cursory studies have been written on Helen Hyde and her work, a wide range of questions have been left unanswered. Issues regarding her specific training, her printmaking techniques and the marketing of her art have been touched on, but never delved into. This dissertation will explore those issues. Helen Hyde's success as a printmaker stemmed from her intense artistic training, experimental techniques, artistic and social connections and diligence in self-promotion and marketing as well as a Western audience hungry for "Old Japan," and its imagined quaintness. Hyde's choice to live and work in Japan gave her access to models and firsthand subject matter which helped her audience feel like they were getting a slice of Japan, translated for them by a Western artist. This dissertation provides an in depth bibliography including hundreds of primary newspaper articles about Hyde who was lauded for her unique style. It also expands and corrects the listing of her printed works and examines the working style of an American working in a Japanese system with Japanese subjects for a primarily American audience. It also provides a listing of known exhibitions of Hyde's works and a listing of stamps and markings she used on her prints. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Art History 2016

This thesis details the literary and visual influences in my work, the definition of American Gothic, and its connection it to my work. Literary sources such as Edgar Allan Poe and Fanny Kemble help spark a vision of the landscape. Visual influences include Japanese woodblock prints, scenic wallpapers, vintage postcards and Victorian mourning pictures. My regional explorations span the James River, Tidewater swamps and architecture within the city of Richmond.My work depicts local history and ecology inspired by Richmond and the surrounding region. Subtle Gothic elements add anxiety to the otherwise pastoral scenes. Gothic foreboding in the work questions our ecological future and the permanence of our human presence in the landscape.