Japanese railway scenes, c 1870s-1880s.

Clockwise from top left: a train travelling on a track between mountains and the sea, with Mount Fuji in the distance; a train leaving a station as the stationmaster waves his flag; a train travelling acros a steel bridge. Railways were constructed in Japan from 1854, first under foreign direction, but from the 1880s with little outside help. Woodblock prints like this one introduced modern western technology to the Japanese public.