This sailing ship relief is a tribute to the harbor’s intricate role to the Kansai Region dating back to the Heian period (794 – 1185) when the port was called Ōwada Anchorage. The artwork is on the side of the old Yokohama Specie Bank built in 1935 in the Former Foreign Settlement. Since 1982, it has housed the Kobe City Museum. Their exhibits trace Kobe’s cultural exchange with Asian and Western countries by era with a special focus on the 400 years of the combined Edo and Meiji periods.
