Isabella Bird, that sharp-eyed, tart-tongued early traveler to Japan, opined that Yokohama had irregularity without picturesqueness, looked harmoniously dull and "does not improve on further acquaintance."
One of the reasons for her criticism was that the city was raw, new and Western. It had been an ordinary fishing village until 1859 when the shogunate decided upon it as an ideal place to trade with foreigners -- far off the Tokaido, a natural enclave where their presence would not be too apparent.
But while Isabella and many another tourist wanted to get into the real Japan, something they thought Yokohama was not, the Japanese themselves flocked down to this new foreign settlement to get their first glimpse of the future, many staying to help create it.