Hand-Colored Album of Late 19th Century Photographs of Japan [50 ALBUMEN PHOTOGRAPHS]
[Yokohama]: [ca. 1880s-1890s]. Hardcover. Large oblong quarto. 25 double-sided heavy-stock paper leaves. Luxurious lacquered wood boards, with carved mother-of-pearl onlay in the shape of flowers and cranes on the front cover. Back cover beautifully hand-painted in gilt. Brown leather spine with gilt tooling. Edges of book block in gilt. Gilt dentelles.
This unique album contains a total of 50 hand-colored albumen photographs of locations and subjects from around Japan. These images, while not specifically dated, can be dated to sometime after 1881 (the time of Kimbei starting his own photographic studio) and are likely not later than the turn of the 20th century. Each print measures approx 8 x 10.5", with most being captioned in English and numbered (in image). Most are location photographs, with some interior scenes, and some being staged studio shots, as was common during the period.
The content includes a wide range of subject matter from across Japan, including:
Nagasaki and the surrounding areas, including Mogi and Unzen Onsen (Hot Springs) - Fuji/Hakone - Matsushima - Osaka - Kyoto - Planting and cultivating rice - Gathering Tea at Uji (Kyoto area) - Ueno Park (Tokyo) - cotton spinning - cooking - eating soba - singing - still lifes of flowers (including cherry blossoms). The final image is notable as it is a cute photomontage showing portraits of babies and young children.
Kusakabe Kimbei (1841- ca.1934) started his career a colorist and assistant to the pioneering photographer Felice Beato (1832-1909) at his studio in Yokohama. Beato is significant in the history of photography in Japan, and is considered among the earliest major photographers to have visually documented and worked in the country. When Beato ended his photography business, he sold his studio and stock to Baron Raimund von Stillfried who together with Hermann Andersen started the Stillfried & Andersen photographic studio. Kimbei continued on with his work under Stillfried & Andersen. After being a protégé of both Beato and Stillfried, Kimbei struck out on his own, and formed his own studio in 1881.
Along with the other two men he became an important figure in the history of Japanese photography, and a successful and key figure in the genre which came to be known as "Yokohama-shashin" (Yokohama Photographs). Yokohama-shashin displayed a wide variety of Japanese scenery and landscapes, as well as people (especially women) and Japanese culture. These images became very popular, often being sold as souvenirs, especially among foreigners living in and visiting Japan. Kimbei is noted for assembling selections of his work into photo albums (each with variant content and binding), luxuriously bound in lacquered boards with mother of pearl, known as the "gold coin albums" (kinhei arubamu). Our album is a classic and beautiful example of one of these.
Binding with some light rubbing and a few small chips to the edges of the boards, with a few scratches and small cracks to the laquer. A few small peices of the mother mother-of-pearl onlay have come off of the front cover. Interior with a piece of the corner of the first leaf torn off, not affecting the images. There are a few minor smudges to the margins of a few of the leaves, but images are unaffected, still clean, with some fading. A few leaves have come loose from the binding but are still present. Binding in very good- to very good, images in very good to very good+ condition overall. vg- to vg+. Item #54490
Price: $2,000.00