Port of London England (Igirisu Rondon no kaikō), from the series Complete Enumeration of Scenic Places in Foreign Nations (Bankoku meisho zukushi no uchi) Possibly 1862

Editor: This triptych, "Port of London England," by Utagawa Yoshitora, is so vibrant! I'm struck by how the artist blends Japanese printmaking with a distinctly Western scene. What underlying narratives do you see at play here? Curator: The ships, the dome, and the city walls – notice how they each represent a different kind of power, each with unique cultural baggage. How do you think the artist, creating this image for a Japanese audience, used these symbols to convey an understanding of this foreign world? Editor: I guess I hadn't considered that! The artist seems to be carefully constructing a visual language. Curator: Precisely! It’s like the artist is inviting us to decipher a code, revealing not just the image of a port, but the complex relationship between cultures. It seems that cultural memory is not a monolithic entity, but a set of symbols and signs. Editor: It makes you wonder about the original viewers and how they interpreted these symbols. Curator: Exactly! Looking at art through this lens makes us examine the cultural memory of not only the artist, but the world at large.