Japanese Old Photographs in Bakumatsu-Meiji Period


During the second half of the 19th century, Japan changed dramatically, marked in large part by the overthrow of the feudal Tokugawa regime and rapid formation into a modern nation-state. At the same time, photographic technology emerged and became increasingly portable. When Westerners visited Japan, viewing the country and people through the lens of Western expectations, they began recording what they saw with photographs. Travelers who brought cameras produced many landscape photographs as well as hundreds of pictures of Japanese people, such as farmers planting rice, a blind beggar on a city street, and samurai in full armor. They also produced many staged pictures of Japanese women, particularly geisha (a favorite subject of Western photographers). Some of the photographs were created by Japanese photographers who began taking pictures in these decades as well.

This website presents 5,000 hand-tinted photographs, a large sample of the photographs taken during this era. Though the photographs are rather small in size, they are all keyword searchable, allowing users to choose images to illustrate discussions of Orientalism, Japanese modernization, Western imperialism, and daily urban life.

Read a more in-depth review written by historian Brian Platt of George Mason University at http://chnm.gmu.edu/worldhistorysource. Or explore additional website reviews at World History Sources—Finding World History or History Matters Website Reviews.