Various Forms of Transportation in Tokyo

This print depicts a range of modern means of transport in the early Meiji period: a paddlewheel steamship (proudly flying the new Japanese national flag), a steam locomotive train, horsedrawn carriages, human-powered rickshaws, and even a bicycle. The newness in Japan of the technology is evidenced by the labels on each vehicle: the Japanese word for bicycle (jitensha) was coined in 1870, the year before this print was made; the country's first railroad—between Yokohama and Tokyo—would not actually be completed until 1872.
There is a connection between the new modes of transportation and the first Japanese embassy to the United States (1860). The envoys got off the U.S.S. Powhatan to cross the Isthmus of Panama by train, becoming the first Japanese officials to board a steam locomotive (several decades before the Panama Canal had been built). They rode another train on the East Coast.
If Japan wanted to manufacture vehicles such as steamships and trains, it would need to learn how to produce large quantities of iron. One of the three 1860 ambassadors, Oguri Tadamasa (1827–1868), went on to found Japan's first navy yard, giving the
country this capability.