A Career of Japan is the first study of one of the major photographers and personalities of nineteenth-century Japan. Baron Raimund von Stillfried was the most important foreign-born photographer of the Meiji era and one of the first globally active photographers of his generation. He played a key role in the international image of Japan and the adoption of photography within Japanese society itself.
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License all the photos on this site at our boutique photo agency for vintage photographs, illustrations and maps of Japan between the 1860s and 1930s (Meiji, Taisho, early Showa)
I love it when I discover the story behind a photo. Especially when that story is as amazing as this one.
I purchased this photo in March 2016. It doesn’t seem to be anything special or important. A Japanese man wearing glasses posing next to a photo of a ship. But when I dug a little deeper, I discovered an amazing story of an extraordinary man.
When I purchased this albumen print in June 2016, I only knew that this was somewhere in Tokyo. Although I guessed it might be Ueno-Hirokoji, I wasn’t sure. I also didn’t know if the photo was significant. It took some research, but I was eventually able to confirm without any doubt that this was indeed Ueno-Hirokoji, and the photo turned out to be extremely significant.
This dramatized studio photograph shows two Japanese women greeting each other while seated on zabuton (座布団) cushions. They perform a senrei (浅礼) bow by placing their hands on the floor in front of them. This bow usually involves a 30° bow. Usually, the gaze is directed at the floor, but the photographer may have wanted to show the models’ faces. Can you take a bow the Japanese way? Read on to learn how!
This is one of those photos that makes you look at the title in utter disbelief. But Shinagawa Station in the late nineteenth century did actually look this rural, with the waves of Tokyo Bay reaching to the very edge of the station. In those days, certainly nobody foresaw that the tiny country station would grow into today’s massive complex. It now services over three quarters of a million passengers daily, making it one of the busiest stations in Japan.
OldPhotosJapan.com — a photo blog about old Japan that reads like a book and works like an archive. All the photographs are from the Kjeld Duits Collection and available for licensing at MeijiShowa.com. Use when you need historical photos, maps or illustrations of Japan for your newspaper article, book, documentary, advertising or other project. For questions, contact us.
@Kim The white building is the Ishihara Tokeiten (石原時計店). This was a well-known retailer of watches …
What is the tall building?
@Jim Clinefelter Thanks, Jim. I love it when photographers leave their name card like that! Yamamoto’s studio …
The clue to who took this image is the kanji on the man’s haori, 寫山茂堂 …
高橋様 明治5年（1872年）、明治天皇の西国御巡幸の際、宮内省御用掛の写真師第一号として随行し、内田九一は長崎を訪れたので、日付を1872年に変更しました。