Tokyo 1911
Jul 10th, 2017 by bachmann
Ogawa Kazuma (1860-1929), remarkable Japanese photographer, printer and publisher, was an innovator in photomechanical printing and photography during the Meiji and Taisho periods. He started studying English and photography at the age of 15, moving to Tokyo in 1880 where he was hired as an interpreter in the Yokohama Police Department, meanwhile learning photography. Wanting to improve his English and photographic skills, he traveled to America, visiting Washington, Boston, and Philadelphia where he took courses in portrait photography and the dry plate process. Upon his return to Japan in 1884, Ogawa opened the first photographic studio in Tokyo, eventually establishing himself as one of the premier Japanese photographers. He published more than 400 books during his career providing beautifully crafted artistic photographs along with images of a rapidly changing Japan during the Meiji and Taisho period.
Ogawa provides the following insight into his photographic publication on Tokyo in 1911.
The present album, notwithstanding the comparative small number of photographs it contains, gives pictures of most places in Tokyo that are noted for their charming scenery or historic interest and enables the beholder to obtain a fair idea of the actual views of those places, an idea which will, it is believed, fully confirm the truth of the proverb that one sight is better than a hundred hearsays.
The book provides 107 halftones with descriptive information in Japanese and English. The images offer an excellent view of Tokyo at a time when tradition and modernization collided regularly resulting in fundamental changes to social structure, politics, and economics.
view of an expanding Tokyo from an airship
cherry blossoms
post office and telephone exchange
fire brigade display
kindergarten
wrestling event
- Description:
- Ogawa, Kazumasa 1860-1930 author. Scenes in the eastern capital of Japan. Tokyo :: Publisher, K. Ogawa, F.R.P.S.,, 1911.
- Persistent Link:
- http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:32638697
- Repository:
- Widener Library
- Institution:
- Harvard University
