Figure 1.--This Japanese photo of four unrelated young men (their names are all different in the inscription). We do not read Japanese so we can not make out their names. As their names are different, we assume they are friends. Formal studios portraits klike this were not very common. I supose they could be cousins. The portrait is dated September of Showa 11 (1936), and was shot by Kotobuki photo studio of Osaka. The inscription on the portrait folio apparently has the boys' names..

This Japanese photo of four unrelated young men (their names are all different in the inscription). We do not read Japanese so we can not make out their names. As their names are different, we assume they are friends. Formal studios portraits like this were not very common. I supose they could be cousins. The portrait is dated September of Showa 11 (1936), and was shot by Kotobuki photo studio of Osaka. It is a three-ply over-lapping paper frame folio matting with tissue paper. Having a dated portraits helps us to date undated portraits. The boys seem very informally dressed. One boy even wears a plain "T"shirt. We do not have enough Japanese portraits to know if that was very common. Notice that while three boys are informally dressed, that one boys wears traditional robe. I am not entirely sure how to interpret thst. It could be that social class was involved. Perhaps he found the trafitional gasrment more compfortable or his parents thought it was more suitable for a portrait. Notice the short hair cuts.

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Created: 7:48 AM 7/20/2009
Last updated: 7:48 AM 7/20/2009