Studio portrait of a Japanese vegetable vendor.
The vendor is wearing a kasa (conical bamboo hat) and a mino (straw raincoat). He carries a pole with baskets filled with vegetables like Japanese radish, lotus roots, Welsh onions, burdocks, onions and carrots.
Peddlers like him were extremely common on the streets of Japan. There were peddlers for virtually everything, from vegetables to medicine to baskets and even furniture.
They went from house to house and walked enormous distances, especially in the countryside. Life was extremely hard for these people.
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Old Photos of Japan aims to be your personal museum for Japan's visual heritage and to bring the experiences of everyday life in old Japan to you.
To enhance our understanding of Japanese culture and society I track down, acquire, archive, and research images of everyday life, and give them context.
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Kjeld Duits
Reference for Citations
Duits, Kjeld (). 1880s: Vegetable Vendor, OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN. Retrieved on January 30, 2026 (GMT) from https://www.oldphotosjapan.com/photos/49/vegetable-vendor
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