Figure 1.--This Japanese Ambrotype portrait is of Matsuda Komataro. Japanese cased portraits were commonly dine in wood without gguttaperca or leather covers and plush interiors. The case is inscribed " Taken by WATANABE Tomio living in Kotohira Village ( Ehime Prefecture, Shikoku Island ) on March 7, Meiji 18 (1885) ". The portrait was 5cm x 8.2cm. The boy looks to be about 10 years old. We would guess that the outfit he is wearing is what he wore to school. Note the school book and ruler. This sportrait shows that by the 1880s photographic studios had been established even in some of the more remote provinces.

Photography began in Europe and America with the opening of Daguerreotype studios (1840s). Very little of this or other Western technology filtered into Japan as the Shogunate kept the country closed to the West. There was only a small Dutch trading post in Nagasaki where foreign trade and contacts were allowed under extremely limited conditions. It was here that the Japanese saw their first photographic portraits--Daguerreotypes. It is believed that a Dutch photographer took the first photograph in Japan. His identity and when he took that photograph appears lost to history. Only after Japan was opened to the West by Commodore Perry (1853) did modern refinements like photography begin to filter in to the country. Here because of their existing contacts, the Dutch helped introduce photography to Japan. Other foreigners soon were involved in this process. As this began to occur in the 1850s we see processes like the Ambrotype entering Japan. Thus most early Japanese photographs are Ambrotypes rather than Daguerreotypes. In fact there are very few Japanese Daguerreotypes. The cased photographs in Japan were done in wood. Within a few years Japanese pioneers like the physician Matsumoto Jun (1832-1907) began to study photography with a Dutch colleague. Much of the earliest work occurred in Nahasaki. His adopted son, Uchida Kuichi (1844-1875), studied photography under Ueno Hikoma in Nagasaki and opened a studio there. Many Japanaese city did not have photographic studios until the 1860s. Uchida moved his studio to Yokahama near Tokyo and acquired the reputation as the best photographer in Tokyo. He was granted a royal commission to photograph the Emperor Menji (1872). Most early photographers were foreigners. A particularly important one was the Venetian-British photographer, Felice Beato (1840-1904), who took beautiful images illustrating the Japanese lifestyle. Most Japanese photographers in the 19th century was more focused on portraits. We are not sure when the first albumen print was made, but surely it must have been during the 1860s. Even so, we notice ambrotypes still being made in the 1880s. The Ambrotype process in the West was displaced by albumen CDVs and cabinent cards in the 1860s. The number of Japanese photographers gradually increased and there were soon many Japanese studios (1870s). Japanese studios gradually replaced the Europeans (1880s). With the development of simple, inexpensive cameras, amateur photography became a popular hobby as was the case in the West.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Japanese pages:
[Return to the Main country photography page]
[Return to the Main Japanese page]
[Return to the Main country page]
[Choirs] [Department store catalogs] [Monarchy] [Music recitals] [Scouts] [School uniforms]

Created: 4:01 AM 8/25/2008
Last updated: 4:01 AM 8/25/2008