Vintage Slices
Besides photographing Japan, I also enjoy collecting antique photos and other cultural and historical artifacts from that country. Here are some from my collection (there are LOTS of photos, and some are slow to load, so please be patient):
Hand-tinted carte-de-visite photograph c.1870s of an unidentified samurai, possibly from the Oi or Takeda clans. He is wearing a typical cold-weather head covering (those partially shorn noggins needed insulation). This covering could also have been a way to conceal that he had cut off his chonmage (topknot) in compliance with an edict issued by the newly restored Emperor Meiji; this photo may have been a memento of the samurai's glory days. Cartes-de-visite were paper photographs made from a glass negative.
Albumen photograph of Tokugawa Akitake (1853-1910), younger brother of Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the last shogun. This photo was taken in Paris in 1867, when the 14-year-old Akitake, one of 18 sons, was an emissary to the Paris Exposition on behalf of his brother Yoshinobu. The young man stayed in France to receive an education, but returned to Japan when his brother's rule was ended and the Emperor Meiji was restored to the throne. Akitake, who became the last lord of the Mito clan and head of the powerful Shimizu family, later was in charge of the Japanese exhibition at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pa., the first time the U.S. public got to see elements of Japanese art and culture firsthand. He returned to France to study, and in 1881 came back to Japan and served the emperor as an adviser. I picked up this photo for a good price on eBay, the online auction site, which is proof that good deals can still be found.
Hand-tinted carte-de-visite photograph circa 1870s of a samurai proudly displaying the badges of his rank and privilege: the katana (long sword) and wakizashi (short or "companion" sword). Artisans, businessmen and certain others outside the warrior class could wear wakizashi, but only samurai were accorded the privilege of wearing katana. The mon, or family crest, on his clothing may be from the Tachibana, Abe, Ii, or Matsuura clans. I've been told the crest, which seems to feature a variation of the wisteria (fuji in Japanese) device, may be from the princely Daigo or Matsuzono houses, or the Ando, Kato, Okubo or Kuroda daimyo (feudal lord) clans. Personally, I think it's Tachibana. Please contact me if you can identify this crest.
Here's a photo I found while surfing the Internet of the same samurai standing in front of the same backdrop, only with a bow and arrows added to his arsenal. Now, if only I could identify him ...
Mounted on the reverse of the samurai photograph pictured above is this collotype photograph taken around 1886 by important Meiji-period photographer Ogawa Kazuma of buildings along the right bank of the Oura River in Nagasaki. There were many bars and hotels for foreigners in this area, including Cook's Hotel, right, which was owned by British sail maker M.H. Cook. The pink building up the hill is the Tozan Gakuin, a school for Japanese children set up by American missionaries.
Views of Tozan Gakuin from vintage postcards.
Ogawa (1860-1929), whose fist name can also be read
Kazumasa or Isshin, was born in what is today Saitama Prefecture, north of
Tokyo. He was introduced to photography by a British missionary while at school in Tokyo in 1873. He later bought a
secondhand camera, and after apprenticing with a photographer named Yoshiwara Hideo in his hometown, opened a
studio in Gunma Prefecture in 1877 and established himself as a portrait
photographer. In 1882 he left for the United States and settled in Boston and then Philadelphia,
continuing his study of portrait photography as well as carbon printing, plate manufacturing, and collotype
photography. He was the first Japanese to study photography abroad. Upon his return to Japan, he opened a
studio in Tokyo in 1885 and was appointed photography instructor to the army
general staff office.
In the late 1880s Ogawa was given several assignments for the Japanese government, including a series of photographs of temples and ancient treasures throughout Japan.
In 1891 he was among the founders of the Japan Photographic Society, Japan's first amateur photography association.
In 1895, he was made a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of England, the first Japanese to be so
honored.
Circa-1890s photo, possibly by Ogawa Kazuma, depicting the legendary encounter between the warrior-giant Benkei and Ushiwakamaru, who grew up to become Minamoto no Yoshitsune, one of the most celebrated warriors in Japanese history. Benkei had been a Buddhist monk, but he was cast out of the temple and started collecting swords by defeating opponents in duels. He collected 999 swords and sought to acquire No. 1,000. Armed with a naginata (halberd), he met Ushiwakamaru on a bridge in Kyoto and challenged the child to a duel, hoping to take the child's excellent sword. Benkei was twice defeated by the child, who proved too quick and nimble. Realizing that Ushiwakamaru was actually a son of Genji, leader of one of the most storied clans in Japan's history, Benkei swore lifelong allegiance to the child. This episode has been handed down in Japanese folklore and has been the subject of Noh and kabuki plays.
Ambrotype (photo on glass), possibly of sisters, c. 1890. Ambrotypes had been very popular in the United States until about the mid-1860s. In Japan, however, where photography got a later start, ambrotypes were still being made well into the Meiji period (1868-1912).
"Carrying manure on ox-back," an albumen photograph taken in the 1880s most likely by Kusakabe Kimbei (1841-1934). Known professionally by his given name, Kimbei, he was one of the most commercially successful Japanese photographers of the 19th century. Most accounts say Kimbei left his birthplace in Kofu, Yamanashi prefecture, at age 15 or 16 and came to Yokohama, entering an apprenticeship with the Italian-born British photographer Felice Beato in the 1860s. He later apprenticed with the Austrian photographer Baron Raimund von Stillfried-Ratenicz in the 1870s and then operated his own studio in Yokohama from about 1885 until 1913. Kimbei used an albumen printing process with egg whites as a suspension medium for the light-sensitive photographic emulsions. He then hand-colored the photographs, or employed others to do this work for him; ironically, many of these hand-colorists were former ukiyo-e (woodblock print) artists put out of work by photography, which quickly surpassed the woodblock print in popularity. Combining his own studio portraits and scenic views of Japan with the reprinted works of Beato and Stillfried, Kimbei created albums, witch he sold to tourists and also exported, broadcasting the notion of Japan's exoticism worldwide. These photo albums also reflect Japan's transformation from an insular, feudal society to a rapidly advancing society open to international influences. Because of the large number of his photographs in foreign collections, Kimbei is better known overseas than he is in Japan.
Hand-tinted albumen photograph of a broom seller, circa 1890s.
Circa 1890s hand-tinted albumen photograph of people playing Go, a venerable and popular Chinese board game that also is played in Japan and Korea. The cocky woman in the middle seems to be pointing out a blunder made by the old man. Perhaps he's slapping his head in self-punishment. Hey, it's just a game, my friend; lighten up!
Imperial Japanese Army aviators and crew doing calisthenics near their bombers somewhere in China, c.1939.
Burlesque show c.1945-52, during U.S. occupation of Japan
Here are two photos taken by an unknown U.S. soldier on occupation duty in Hiroshima c.1945-46 outside the remains of the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, which we know today as the A-bomb Dome. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is one of the few buildings in the center of the city to survive (in this case partially) the dropping of the atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945. In the first photo, note the GI just visible inside the wreckage of the building. Today, the site is fenced off and entry is forbidden.
Here's a movie still from the 1940s or '50's, purportedly brought back to the United States by a soldier who was on duty in Japan. The name of the film is almost on the tip of my tongue. Please contact me if you can identify the movie.
Stereoview from around 1890 titled "Jiu Jitsu Athletes of Japan." You have to love this staged scene of the fellow on the ground about to get whacked with a sake bottle tray by the guy in the middle, while the dude on the right tries to pull him off. Evidently, their little gambling session didn't go well. What all this has to do with jiu-jitsu or athletes is anyone's guess.
Tintype photograph taken near the end of the American Civil War or immediately afterward of two sailors from the USS Colorado (notice the ship's name, which appears in reverse because of the photographic process used, on the tally, or hatband, of the sailor in the inset photo). Though the Colorado, a screw steam frigate, doesn't figure in Japanese history, it was the flagship of a five-ship U.S. naval squadron that saw action in Korea in May 1871. After the Civil War, the aim of U.S. foreign policy was to rival the European powers (France, Russia and Britain) in their efforts to establish trade and spheres of influence in China, Japan and Korea. It was this fear of foreign domination that played a central role in Japan's Meiji Restoration in 1868 and its subsequent rush to modernize.
*The conservative Choson Dynasty of Korea faced difficult external and internal problems. During the 19th century, Christianity became well-established in Korea. When Catholic missionaries from France were persecuted, France intervened. And when a U.S. merchant ship was attacked in Pyongyang, the United States intervened.
A month of fighting followed and at the battle for the Ch'oji-jin Fortress on Kanghwa Island, the French forces were driven out.
The USS Colorado was part of the Navy's Asiatic Squadron from 9 April 1870 to 15 March 1873. As flagship for Rear Admiral J. Rodgers' squadron, she carried the U.S. envoy to China and Korea on a diplomatic mission in April 1871. An unprovoked attack was made on two ships of the squadron by shore batteries from two Korean forts on 1 June 1871 and when no explanation was offered, a punitive expedition destroyed the forts and inflicted heavy casualties on the Koreans on 10 June. Leaving Hong Kong on 21 November 1872, the Colorado sailed by way of Singapore and Cape Town, South Africa, for New York, arriving 11 March 1873.
She was sold 14 February 1885.
*This information was adapted from Wikipedia.com.
Gold (left) and silver coins from the Edo period, circa 1840s-'50s.
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