A studio portrait of a young basket maker wearing a head band using bamboo to weave a basket. All around him are his bamboo products.
They include draining baskets (笊, zaru), winnowing baskets (箕, mi), and noodle-draining baskets (饂飩打ち上げ篭, udon uchiage kago).
Many thanks to Noel, who noticed that the props in this image are identical to those of the Yamamoto Studio in Yokohama. This made it possible to both attribute and date this image correctly. See more Yamamoto images at MeijiShowa.
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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.
I share what I have found for free on this site, without ads or selling your data.
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Kjeld Duits
Reference for Citations
Duits, Kjeld (). 1870s: Basket Craftsman, OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN. Retrieved on October 26, 2025 (GMT) from https://www.oldphotosjapan.com/photos/711/basket-craftsman
Noel
After going through Terry Bennett’s “Photography in Japan” I would say it’s a Yamamoto Studio work. You can see all the similarities in props, especially when you compare it with the photo of woman in kago featured on page 189.
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Kjeld Duits (Author)
@Noel: Excellent observation. I missed that completely, although I have studied Photography in Japan intensively. Will adjust the meta data right away. Thank you!
#000568 ·
Victoria Oyama
I think that winnowing basket is ‘mi’ in Japanese, not ‘ki’.
#000587 ·
Kjeld Duits (Author)
@Victoria Oyama: You are absolutely right, Victoria. Thanks for noting the typo!
#000611 ·