Photographs of Old Japan

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After speaking with

Christopher Harding

earlier this week, I have found myself sitting at my desk here in Edinburgh dreaming of Japan.

As such, I decided to see if I couldn’t travel there vicariously through art. I began rooting around the archives of various museums and galleries until I came across this gem of a collection of 19th century photographs.

These pictures, the work of several different photographers,¹ were assembled by a pair of collectors named Henry and Nancy Rosin. They were originally shot in black and white, then hand-coloured by artists — a technique common at the time. All were taken between the years 1860-1900, meaning the earliest of them just predates the Meiji Restoration, when the last shōgun still ruled Japan.

As with our look at old photos of the Russian Empire and the American West, I’m once again struck by the fact that none of the people in these images are still with us. If any of them somehow returned to the land of the living, I wonder how much of the old Japan they’d recognise today.

The world of dew —
A world of dew it is indeed,
And yet, and yet... 

— Kobayashi Issa (1817)

(All images courtesy of Henry and Nancy Rosin Collection of Early Photography of Japan. FSA.A1999.35. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.)

Sumida River, at Mukojima, Tokyo.

Girl Smoking Pipe.

View of Honmoku.

Jinrikishia.

Garden-Street, at Shiba, Tokyo.

Oji Tea House, at Tokyo.

View of Imaichi, at Nikkō Road.

Town Hachiishi, Nikkō.

Sleeping Girl.

Pagoda at Nikkō.

Yomei Mon (Great Gate) at Nikkō.

The Stable at Nikkō.

Sorinto Nikkō.

Ganman No Fuchi (Pool of Ganman at Nikkō.

View of Chiuzenji Lake, at Nikkō.

Thief, outside of mosquito-net.

Chiusenji Lake, and Nantai San, Mt. Nikkō.

Nagasaki.

Prince Hotta's garden at Tokyo.

Daibutsu, at Kamakura.

View of Tonosawa.

View of Kiga Hot Spring.

View Ojigoku on Great Boiling Springs, Hakone.

View of Kobe.

Awaji-Shima, Inland Sea.

Kago, travelling chair.

Within the castle grounds, Osaka.

View of the Sumiyoshi Bridge, Osaka.

Wysteria Vine.

Room.

Wrestlers.

View of Mikado’s Garden, at Kyoto.

Three smiling women at tea.

Gion Machi Street, at Kyoto.

Chionin Large Bell, at Kyoto.

Biwa Lake, from Miidera.

Letter carrier.

Biwa Lake, from Ishiyama.

Two women with fan and shamisen.

View of Nara.

Buddhist Monks.

Tennojo Buddhist Temple at Osaka.

Three women with parasol under cherry blossom.

Hakone Lake of Fujiyama.

1. Namely, Felice Beato (born c. 1825), Baron Raimon von Stillfried (1938-1911), Kusakabe Kimbei (active 1880s), Ueno Hikoma (1838-1904), Ogawa Kazumasa (1860-1929), plus a few unknown photographers.