The Far East; an illustrated fortnightly newspaper 1870-78
Available electronically through Hathi Trust
Gaikoku shinbun ni miru Nihon 1852-1922
Has articles on Japan from English, French, German, Chinese and Russian newspapers and Japanese translations.
Japan Weekly Mail 1870-1915
Church Missionary Society archive 1869-1957; online guide
US Consultate - Hakodate 1856-1878
US Consulate - Kanagawa 1861-1897
US Consulate - Nagasaki 1860-1906
US Consulate - Yokohama 1897-1906
A primary source is a first-hand account of an event. Primary sources may include newspaper articles, letters, diaries, images, interviews, laws, reports of government commissions, and many other types of documents.
Use Subject Headings for your topic and words like "-diaries", "-personal narratives" and "sources" (e.g.Japan--Foreign relations--United States--Sources). Another useful heading is "Japan--Description and travel" although it will include scholarly analyses as well as primary sources.
Duke University's Rare Books and Special Collections Library has several collections with material focusing on Japan including reports from missionaries and early British diplomats to Japan, East India Company papers, and diaries and letters from merchants and seamen, as well as items in such collections as the stereographic card collection, the Hartman advertising collection and the postcard collection. The finding aid for these collections can be searched at http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/rbmscl/inv/. In addition,of particular note are:
America, Asia and the Pacific
Papers of Edward Sylvester Morse (1838-1925). Morse went to Japan in 1877 to teach at the Imperial University of Tokyo. He is known for his documentation of life in Japan before it was transformed by Western modernization.
MIT Visualizing Cultures
Created by John Dower at MIT, Visualizing Cultures uses Japan since the mid-19th century as a case study for gaining new perspectives on "cultures" in the broadest since - the "cultures," for example, of Westernization, modernization, changing modes of technology and mass communication, imperialism, nationalism, militarism, racism, commercialization and consumerism, etc.
Image websites
Sort by format, subject or historical period. Formats include architecture, calligraphy, ceramics, folk arts, maps, painting, photography, posters, prints, scrolls, sculpture.
Yokohama-e
Because Yokohama was some distance from Edo, Edo print publishers sent artists to Yokohama to sketch foreigners and hired writers to supply information (or rather misinformation). Most observant artist was Utagawa Sadahide but they also include Yoshiiku, Yoshikazu and Yoshitora.