Yokohama
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Yokohama. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the chief port of entry in Japan, and the headquarters of foreign shipping companies, banks, consulates, and commerce generally. Till the in 1854 it was an opening of the country insignificant fishing village, contiguous to the important town of Kanagawa, originally granted as a treaty settlement. The obstructions offered by the Japanese and the impatience of foreign merchants led to the practical abandonment of Kanagawa, which, however, still remained nominally the seat of the various consulates. Yokohama is a well laid-out town, but contains narrow winding streets. The Bluff, conceded for residence in 1867, is a beautiful spot which commands fine views of Fuji-san and of Yokohama bay. Other parts of the town have also been greatly improved and there are now many fine buildings, hospitals, churches, clubs, parks, etc. Vol. X The bay is very beautiful, and, though only an open roadstead, affords a good and commodious anchorage. Work on a large harbor was carried out in 1889- 1896, the main object of which was to prevent the gradual silting up of the anchorage; it is inclosed by two breakwaters 14 miles long, and an iron pier, 1,900 feet long, connected with the railway to the capital, 17 miles off. Yokohama is a center for tourists visiting Japan. The foreign community here is the largest in the country; after the Chinese, British residents, chiefly merchants and brokers, bulk most largely. There is an imperial health laboratory here, admirably conducted. The entire foreign trade of Yokohama in 1918 was about $665,163,000, the exports having a value of nearly double the imports. Silk represents three-fifths of the exports, the rest being other tissues, tea, rice, copper, curios, etc.; the imports are cotton and woolens, raw sugar, oils, metals, chemicals, arms, and ammunition, watches, etc. Pop. about 450,000.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
yo-ko-ha'ma, the chief seaport of Japan. It is situated on the Bay of Yedo about seventeen miles southwest of Tokio. Tokio is the city of business. Yokohama is its port. Consuls and foreign merchants reside at Yokohama. It has an excellent harbor in which the merchant vessels of the world, as well as the naval squadrons of nations with which Japan is at peace, are allowed to anchor. Long breakwaters have been built. A railway connects the port with the capital. The population is estimated at a third of a million. The imports, valued in a recent year at $45,000,000, consist chiefly of sugar, machinery, cotton and woolen goods, kerosene, and baled cotton. The exports, valued at $68,000,000, were chiefly cocoons, silks, coffee, tea, fish, paper and paper goods, fans, dolls, etc. Owing to the prevalence of earthquakes, the buildings are, for the most part, low and far from capacious. The natives reside in inexpensive wooden buildings worth a few dollars each. The furniture of a three-room house is worth about $25. Tourists visiting Japan land at Yokohama. See Japan ; Tokio
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Two years after Collier's described Yokohama's fine buildings and busy silk wharves in 1921, the Great Kanto earthquake of 1 September 1923 and the fires that followed destroyed almost the entire city and killed tens of thousands there; what was rebuilt was burned again in the American air raid of 29 May 1945. Aiton's 1910 remark that buildings are "low and far from capacious" because of earthquakes has been overturned by engineering: the Minato Mirai waterfront district, built on former shipyard and railyard land from the 1980s, is crowned by the 296-metre Landmark Tower of 1993, for two decades the tallest building in Japan. The silk that Collier's said made up three-fifths of exports has vanished as a trade, and the port now handles containers and cars. Population has risen from the "about 450,000" of 1921 to roughly 3.7 million, making Yokohama the most populous single municipality in Japan and a commuter city within greater Tokyo.
Written for this edition, 2026.