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.