Cover Graphics

Tinted Photographs and Portraits (main collection)

Portraits taken in Tokyo photo studios during the Meiji Period (main collection)
As Japan entered the Meiji Period, commercial photo studios begun by the likes of Hikoma Ueno and Renjo Shimooka in the last days of the Tokugawa Shogunate became widespread throughout the country. It was only natural, therefore, that a large number of such photo studios were concentrated in Tokyo, the center of modernization, or "Bunmei-kaika" (civilization and enlightenment). The portrait introduced here is part of a collection of 80 such portraits taken in photo studios, mostly in Tokyo, in the first 30 years of the Meiji Era.

Tinted photographs made as souvenirs for foreign tourists (main collection)
Such photos, made by applying ukiyo-e techniques to color-tint monochrome prints, were called "Yokohama photographs" and were produced in abundance from the 1880s just until the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. This album contains 50 photos, including works featuring landscapes and architecture, i.e., Nagasaki, Kobe, Osaka, Yokohama, the Toshogu Shrine in Nikko, as well as photos of Japanese men and women wearing kimonos and posing for the camera. English captions accompany the photos. The hard wooden cover shows a relief of a woman in a kimono riding a rickshaw with Mt. Fuji in the background.


Portrait taken in a photo studio Tinted photographs sold as souvenirs to foreign tourists

Index

Special Edition

On Photography

A Witness to History

A photographic introduction to items from the collection
The Hardships of the Heian Aristrocrats

Special Edition

On the beginning of the new series "History's First Steps" (Shinichiro Fujio)
History's First Steps Photography
Records and Rituals Photographs in family life and history (Kazuo Ueno)
From a collection of war photographs found in various regions
Photographer Fumio Yanagida's perspective
(Takahiko Murase)
Museums and Image Engineering (Kimiyoshi Miyata)

Column

Old Edo Castle Photo Album (Shiro Maruyama)
Photographs and Oil Paintings The case of Yuichi Takahashi (Ryo Furuta)

The 42nd Rekihaku Colloquy

Modern Japan as seen through performing arts (Yoshihiro Kurata and Masato Miyachi)

The 10th Rekihaku Research Update

Joint Research Project - Results of "General research on regional Dutch studies" (Toshiyuki Aoki)

Introducing our Researchers - Part 1

The Study of Funeral Rituals (Shinya Yamada)

Book Review

"Story of Village Conflict ('Murakata-sodo') in Edo" by Satoshi Takahashi
Reviewed by Seiichi Hashimoto

Rekihaku Chat (readers' page) May 30, 2002

Rekihaku News

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