Products of Greater Japan – Image of Ice Exportation in Hakodate, Hokkaido

Utagawa Hiroshige III

1877 (Meiji 10)

Donated by Tanba Tsuneo 


From 1871, ice was produced in Hakodate using the moats of the Goryōkaku​ fortress. The ice, having been cut and removed from the waters, would be sent to Tokyo via foreign merchant ship for storage in Hokkaido Development Commission warehouses, from there to be distributed throughout Japan.