Comments on: Japanese historical photographs ca. 1910

Japanese historical photographs ca. 1910

Rumple — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 14:43:16 -0800

A nice set of photographic glass-plate transparencies depicting life in Japan ca. 1910. These "Yokohama photographs" were sold to foreign tourists between about 1868 and 1912. I found the Crafts and Trades section most interesting.

By: Rumple

Rumple — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 14:44:07 -0800

It is unfortunate there are no captions for the photos, leading one to guess what is going on.

By: hoskala

hoskala — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 14:49:47 -0800

Amazing. Thanks.

By: No-sword

No-sword — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 15:15:31 -0800

Wow. Also, I find it entertaining that this is in "landscapes and wildlife".

By: languagehat

languagehat — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 15:18:12 -0800

Wow indeed. Terrific stuff.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 16:43:14 -0800

Great find, rumple! Great stuff! Bookmarked.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 16:54:58 -0800

The more I peruse this collection the more impressed I am. This guy was a masterful photo-documentarian, with an eye for the beauty and importance of the everyday. These photos are just so perfectly representative of the daily activities of ordinary people, farmers, artists and craftsmen, that even when some of the shots have a bit of a staged feel, they're still so real. So informative. And often very artful. Love the hand-tinting, too, it's very well done. Thanks again, Rumple.

By: Heywood Mogroot

Heywood Mogroot — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 17:25:57 -0800

awesome. The vision of a nation of craftsmen, shopkeepers, and laborers creating and trading wealth between each other warms the cockles of this wannabe-minarchist's heart. The owners of this shop could have realized an immense profit for the descendents by stashing their salesstock in a cave for 100 years -- boom, instant antique store.

By: Xurando

Xurando — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 18:14:17 -0800

Color pix in 1910. I doubt it.

By: Rumple

Rumple — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 18:23:58 -0800

Xurando - they are hand tinted. See here.. I just found this nice collection as well. Wonderful B&W pictures from ca. 1870s Japan.

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 19:04:57 -0800

Wonderful.

By: YoBananaBoy

YoBananaBoy — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 19:13:05 -0800

Very lovely. Nice find. Except ... needs more ninjas.

By: scheptech

scheptech — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 19:27:17 -0800

Great post. The lack of artificial lighting is always so obvious in old interior shots lending a very 'realistic' and moment-in-time look. The craftsmen in their daily work and the photographer in that moment are both limited to using what we call "ambient" light and they probably called either "sunlight" or just "light".

By: lundman

lundman — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 19:40:50 -0800

Very nice indeed.

By: zymurgy

zymurgy — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 22:12:26 -0800

When they say color tinting does this mean that someone colored the photos by hand? If so, someone is really good at matching the colors. Example: http://gateway.uvic.ca/spcoll/Digit/Geddes/images/HGSCANS/SC045_HG_01_004_2.JPG

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 00:34:01 -0800

A photoblog of daily life in Japan? Burn him!

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 04:50:07 -0800

A photoblog of daily life in Japan? Burn him! Heh. The difference, of course, is that the Geddes photos are exquisite, and the other ones are ~~shite~~ not.

By: zeoslap

zeoslap — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 07:29:21 -0800

Getting a page access is restricted message

By: Rumple

Rumple — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 11:07:29 -0800

Thanks zeoslap. Page is back up now. zymurgy - my understanding is that glass slides like these were literally hand-tinted using paintbrushes and (usually for glass) oilpaints. Very labour intensive, but with skill and practice, quite quick. Wikipedia. Similar skillset as handpainting ceramics, for example. it would be nicely meta if one of these slides showed the handpainting of slides...