OLD JAPANESE PHOTOGRAPHS

A photograph album with 46 hand coloured photographs (200 x26omm) each mounted on a separate page (260 x340mm). Most have captions, some with identifying numbers. The album itself has a maroon decorative lacquered front cover with embossed illustrations in cream and gilt over bevelled boards with inner gilt dentelles. The spine is missing. The photographs are all in very good condition.

736 Urami Waterfall From the Tamamura (Kozaburo) Studio
737 Jikan Waterfall: From the Tamamura (Kozaburo) Studio
N8 The garden of Sweat Flag in Horikiri; specifically listed on page 36 of the reference below as part of the unidentified group of photographs.
P 18 Singing Girls; specifically listed on page 38 of the reference below as part of the unidentified group of photographs.
Q 82 Drawing water from the well are also specifically listed on page 38 of the reference below as part of the unidentified group of photographs.

Other photographs with captions but unidentified studios include:

327 Chuzenji Nikko
224 Satake Garden, Tokyo
B36 Yokohama

Throughout the whole reign of the Emperor Meiji - October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912 and beyond, it was possible for Japan’s foreign visitors, and of course local residents to acquire souvenir photographs of scenic views and portraits. These photographs were usually mounted in albums whose boards were decorated with attractive lacquer work or Japanese silk cloth. The photos themselves were invariably hand coloured, but some customers favoured them in their original sepia tones. The albums are sometimes today referred to as Yokohama Albums since most of the studios which produced them, at least in the early years, were based in that town. After the 1880s, however, an increasing number were compiled and distributed through Tokyo, Kobe and Nagasaki. The albums were issued by various photo studios, both Japanese and Western. Sometimes the studio can be identified by a photographic frontispiece, photographer’s stamp, or other markings, but usually there is no way of doing so. Attributions of authorship can never be guaranteed.

Customers of souvenir albums (primarily foreign tourists) would often ask for scenic photographs which represented the key regions and tourist venues throughout Japan—or perhaps mirrored the actual journey the tourist had taken. In fact, from the 1890s onwards, there was a growing industry which centered on dealing in photographs, rather than taking them. Composite albums, however, would be cheaper, sold mainly by dealers, have indifferent and inconsistent colouring and captioning and contain the work of up to several different photographers.
For further information on the various photographic studios see:
https://oldasiaphotography.com/pdf/SouvenirAlbums.pdf