The following images are believed to have been taken in 1908. They depict scenes of everyday life in Yokohama in those early days, where the seeds of cosmopolitanism were planted that will eventually see the city become the second largest in Japan by population.

After 1868, the Meji Restoration saw Yokohama develop from a small fishing village to an important port -- a familiar story if there ever was one (*wink wink*).

The silk trade connected their port industry to Great Britain, turning the village outward as the Japanese welcomed foreign influence and the influx of industrial technology, putting an end to its insular, inward-looking isolationism.

Not only did foreign influence creep in, the Japanese were also producing goods that were exported as they were in demand overseas.

Life was transformed as evident from the number of presumably German expatriates living and mingling with the local community, such as the photo above.

The photographs are believed to have been found in the album of a presumed German tradesman living and working in the area around the 1900s.

The images are particularly haunting as they preserved life as it unfolded in Yokohama at that time, which was subsequently largely destroyed by the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923.

Read also: Thousands of Japanese women worked as prostitutes in S’pore in late 1800s, early 1900s

You can view hundreds of other photos on Wolfgang Wiggers Flickr.

All photos via Wolfgang Wiggers Flickr

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