Lotus ponds in Japan around 1880

1022. Lotus Pond, Kameido, Tokio. Albumen print hand-tinted. Unknown artist. Japan, 19th century. | src Syracuse University Art Museum

Lotus pond at Ueno Tokio. From: Famous Scenes in Japan; Takagi Photo Co., Kobe, Japan, not dated published ca. 1919. | George Baxley >>> view more "lotus ponds" on wordPress

Kusakabe Kimbei (Japanese, 1841 - 1934) :: 1034. Lotus pond at Kamakura | src Syracuse University Art Museum

Tamamura Kozaburo, Dancing Girls, 1880s

We’re back from a long break! Sorry for the long silence but we’re happy to be back again.

This summer, we launched a new website for Early Photography of Japan. It is a virtual collection of more than 40 souvenir photograph albums and illustrated publications from Japan with over 2,000 images from Widener Library, the Fine Arts Library, and Harvard-Yenching Library. In celebrating this new website, we’re posting several images from the Fine Arts Library’s collection. 

Japan: Described and Illustrated by the Japanese – Part 1

In 1896, Tamamura Kozaburo, a highly successful commercial photographer in Yokohama, received an order from a Boston publisher that would eventually lead to the production of more than one million hand-colored albumen prints. At a time when most publishers were using illustrations produced via cheaper and faster photomechanical processes such as collotype or halftone, J. B. Millet Company used original photographs to illustrate no less than 16 different folio editions of the multi-volume Japan: Described and Illustrated by the Japanese published between 1897 and 1898. The publisher limited the most exclusive editions to 25 sets available by subscription only, along with larger editions numbering 750 to 1000 sets. 

The key figures in this undertaking included a Boston publisher, an expatriate Irishman, and a Japanese photographer. Harvard graduate Josiah Byram Millet (1853-1938) founded his publishing company in 1890, and like many in the Boston area, he became interested in Japan, learning to speak the language and developing close connections to many Japanese statesmen, scholars, and businessmen. He conceived the idea for Japan: Described and Illustrated by the Japanese and used his connections to secure financial backing for the project from the Japanese government.

Stay tuned for our future posts!

From Japan: Described and Illustrated by the Japanese

Image 1: Front cover Image 2: Title cover Image 3: Page XI, showing Mt. Fuji

Description Brinkley, F. Japan :described and illustrated by the Japanese. Boston : J. B. Millet Company, 1897-1898. Imperial edition. Fine Arts Library, Harvard University. Repository Fine Arts Library Institution Harvard University

“TAKING GRANNY TO THE TOP OF MT. FUJI — Over 100 years ago in old Japan.  

"My photo-title is not in jest. That’s really what those men are doing. It’s tough enough conquering the mountain alone. Can you imagine doing it with someone sitting in a chair on your back !?  

Circa 1905 lantern-slide photo by Japanese photographer  Kozaburo Tamamura. 

Hand-colored on glass over 100 years ago.”   Text and image via Okinawa Soba.

Tamamura Kozaburo. Fuji from Hakone Lake, number 861, 1880-1923.

Tamamura Kozaburo  1880-1900

KINKAKUJI GARDEN AT KIOTO

Tamamura Kozaburo

Tamamura Kozaburo.  Fuji from Hakone Lake, number 861, 1880-1923.

Photographies “Kendo Kids” du photographe japonais

Tamamura Kōzaburō 玉村 康三郎 (1856 - 1923 ?).

‘Fuji from Hakone lake’ (1856), photography by Tamamura Kozaburo. Fuente: Harvard Fine Arts LIbrary.

Kōzaburō Tamamura. 1034 Peonies Botan,1890s.  

Tamamura Kozaburo, A Girl Carrying Child on Back, 1880s

by Kozaburo Tamamura / 玉村康三郎 (1856 - date of death unknown) Geigi beating a Tsuzumi / 鼓を打つ芸奴

In honor of World Ocean Day today, we’re posting hand-colored lantern slides depicting oceans by Japanese photographer Enami Nobukuni from the Fine Arts Library’s collection of early photography of Japan.

Enami Nobukuni (1859-1929), who adopted the trade name T. Enami, was the most widely published photographer of the Meiji period. A student of and then assistant to Ogawa Kazumasa, he opened a studio in Yokohama in 1892 near Tamamura Kozaburo. Enami worked in all popular formats, including large format prints in souvenir albums, lantern slides, and stereographs. To date, he has been identified as the photographer of the largest number of original hand-colored albumen prints used in the 1897-1898 multi-volume work Japan: Described and Illustrated by the Japanese. After his death, his son Tamotsu operated the studio until it was destroyed in World War II.

General view of Matsushima one of the three great Japanese views Enami, T., 1859-1929, Japanese [photographer] Hand-colored lantern slide. 3.25 x 4 in. Part of Etz-Trudell Collection of Hand-Colored Lantern Slides of Japan, India, and Korea HOLLIS Catalog record ca. 1898 Repository: Harvard Fine Arts Library, Special Collections  HOLLIS number: olvwork372201

Unidentified ocean with hills in background Enami, T., 1859-1929, Japanese [photographer] Hand-colored lantern slide. 3.25 x 4 in. ca. 1925 Repository: Harvard Fine Arts Library, Special Collections  HOLLIS number: olvwork372206

The Studio of Tamamura Kozaburo and possibly Kusakabe Kimbei. Delicately hand-colored albumen print. 1880′s / 1890′s

src: liveauctioneers