7 Amazing Vintage Photos Of 19th-Century Japan

[Bazza]

Dear All, a friend has sent me the following link:

http://urbantimes.co/2013/12/Japan-vintage-photography/

that shows "7 Amazing Vintage Photos Of 19th-Century Japan". The introduction reads "This week, the Public Domain Review (PDR) posted a series of hand-colored albumen prints that date back to 19th-century Japan. Albumen is a process that used egg whites to bind the photographic chemicals to the paper. The prints, uploaded by the Dutch National Archieff, offer a glimpse of life in Japan some 150 years ago."

 

At the end there is a comment by the contributor Keiko Tanaka "View more images from the series of 42 hand-coloured albumine prints from Spaarnestad Photo by Felice Beato, Kusakabe Kimbei or Raimund baron von Stillfried." The direct link is:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationaala ... 774885996/

 

I was quite surprised to see an old mechanical Japanese typewriter at left in the 7th row down. In the day of the computer these machines are real fossils. I happen to have one with trays of different fonts in one of my sheds. I rescued it from a scrap metal dealer because I couldn't bear to see it destroyed, so it lives with many other "might come in handy one day" items on rows of shelves... I would give it free to a good home...

 

Compliments of the Season to all you good Nihontojin, with grateful thanks for a good year on NMB and looking forward to 2014.

Best regards,

BaZZa.

[Alex A]

Interesting Bazza, i like the garden photo, i used to have a similar dozy dog. I do like those granite lanterns. Looks like some of the photos where taken yesterday, very clear indeed.

[george trotter]

Bazza sama,

thanks for the links...very interesting.

 

...when I studied Japanese at Univ. of West. Aust. in 1979-81 our Japanese Dept. still used one of those typewriters. I well remember walking past the office on numerous occasions and hearing maybe 3 "tocks" during the whole length of the corridor...they were sooo slow. The typist was Miss Semba Kimiko...a real lady, from Kurashiki. I wonder where she is now, and the typewriter....?

Thanks for that Bazza...and a Merry Christmas to all you Eastern Staters.

Regards,

George.

[estcrh]

Here is an example of what a little modern image editing can do to revive old photos, you can also enlarge individual parts of an image in order to see previously unseen details.

 

Before.

 

After.

 

[Guido]

[estcrh]

Guido, that is just how a young samurai showed how cool he was, by wearing his haidate down low....but how do you explain this?

[Jean]

Eric,

 

Probably a Mirmillon avatar :D

[Thierry BERNARD]

his name is probably "Dagobert"

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_bon_roi ... %28song%29

[george trotter]

Hmmm...I have to wonder at the powers of observation by our armour members...all very well to draw circles around various armour parts but not notice a car in the background...or a kyugunto with a worn leather saya cover (just joking ).

That's an interesting picture...by his uniform and the car it looks late 1920s or early 1930s as I think the uniform and sword mounts changed about 1934....wonder what the original caption was?...and what is that object hanging down his back that I can see behind his leg?

Just askin'

[estcrh]

That's an interesting picture...by his uniform and the car it looks late 1920s or early 1930s as I think the uniform and sword mounts changed about 1934...

George I was thinking the same thing, some were between the late 20s to early 30s, that is not to long after the end of the samurai era, with the last fighting between samurai and the new Meji government taking place around 1877. It did not take long for the government and its new army to erase all knowledge of the previous military (the samurai) from the collective memory.

[Baka Gaijin]

Please excuse me,

 

This has already been posted on NMB in another thread.

 

Here are about 6000 Photographs from the Bakumatsu period:

 

http://oldphoto.lb.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/en/

 

It's easy to navigate by subject.

 

Cheers

[estcrh]

 

Here are about 6000 Photographs from the Bakumatsu period:

 

http://oldphoto.lb.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/en/

 

Malcolm, unfortunately there are very few samurai related images in their collection and the images they do have are quite small, and they are watermarked (I HATE THAT!!!)

 

Here is a links with hundreds (900+) samurai related images from the Edo and Meiji periods, many previously unseen newly edited images here as well, enjoy :D

 

 

http://www.pinterest.com/nihonnokatchu/ ... otographs/

 

[Baka Gaijin]

Thank you Eric,

 

That's quite a resource, I like the one showing the Fire Cape and Cowl.

 

Cheers

[Bazza]

Thank you indeed Eric. I've just had a good hour trawling those photos and noted many historical figures of the Bakumatsu and Meiji eras. I noticed one photo that would especially appeal to our "gunny" members. I know it did to me because a mate of mine has a Spencer carbine and this type of gun was used by the Gold Escorts here in Victoria, Australia, and was also used by the police who were chasing our notorious 19th century outlaw Ned Kelly. I've attached the photo in question and here is some supporting blurb:

 

The photo is titled

"Shima Kakoku "Kawazu Izu no kami", albumen print, 7.8 x 6 cm, ca 1860, coll. Shima Eiichi., shown with Spencer carbine."

 

The photographer is SHIMA KAKOKU http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shima_Kakoku

 

The subject of his photograph is KAWAZU IZU no KAMI, a high-ranking samurai:

 

http://www.bridgemanart.com/en-GB/asset ... umen-print

 

Bestests,

 

BaZZa.

[John A Stuart]

There are actually a few pictures of Kawazu Sukekuni. Pretty important guy, 2nd in command of the mission of Ikeda Nagaoki to France to close the harbour of Yokohama 1863. John