photographic history:Japanese

Suzuki Harunobu, "Tamagawa in Kôno" print from the series Mu-tamagawa, before 1770.
In this picture, two boys, probably male prostitutes, have been looking at an image through an optique, much like the one seen below.
From Timon Screech, The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Later Edo Japan(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996) plate 2.



An optique, probably Dutch-made.
From Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, ed., The Advent of Photography in Japan(Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 1997) 41.



Nishimura Shigenaga, Uki-e. interior of kabuki theater (performance of the play Chushingura).
From The Advent of Photography in Japan 19.


Unsigned (Torii Kiyonaga), All star cast of kabuki actors in the street (kaomise).
From The Advent of Photography in Japan, 20.



Artist unknown, Uki-e, Puppet play in a residence.
From The Advent of Photography in Japan, 21.



Utagawa Hiroshige, Night view of Saruwaka-cho in Edo. From the series "Meisho Edo hyakkei."
From The Advent of Photography in Japan, 25.



Kitagawa Utamaro, Woman looking into a picture-show box (nozoki megane o miru bijin). From the series "Fujin sougaku hiromi."
From The Advent of Photography in Japan, 26.



A Japanese-made peep-show box (nozoki megane).
From The Advent of Photography in Japan, 29.


Megane-e, attributed to Maruyama Okyo. The picture changes from a day to night view depending on the amount and direction of light.
From The Advent of Photography in Japan, 29.


A magic lantern, which projected the plates below.
From The Advent of Photography in Japan, 45.


Two of 23 magic langern plates of "Famous places in Edo," based on Hiroshige's work, 1830-44.
From The Advent of Photography in Japan, 45.



A Japanese-made microscope.
From The Advent of Photography in Japan, 46.

Detail from Katsuchika Hokusai, "Women with Telescope and Parasol," print from the series Fûryû nakute nanakuse, after 1789.
From Timon Screech, The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Later Edo Japan plate 16.


A Japanese-made camera with decoration in carved red lacquer, made sometime before 1863.
From The Advent of Photography in Japan, 76.

At left: Issen Yoshikazu, "Foreigner photographing" (ijin shashinkyo no zu), c. 1860's.
At right: Issen Yoshikazu, Novelties at Yokohama-- Watch, photograph, and American, c. 1860's.
From The Advent of Photography in Japan, 77.


Yokoyama Matsusaburo, self-portrait (photograph), c. 1874.
From The Advent of Photography in Japan, 129.


Yokoyama Matsusaburo, self-portrait (oil on paper).
From The Advent of Photography in Japan, 127.