Snapshot of Japan’s Early Photo-History:
Pre-20th Century Perspective
by Theo Kogod
It’s hard to imagine what modern photography
would be without the Japanese influence. Like
with sports cars, animation, and giant robots, the
Japanese have designed some of the best cameras
in the world. Companies like Canon, Nikon,
Olympus, Pentax, and Sony dominate the market,
and their cameras have been used by professional
photographers across the globe. But the actual
history of Japanese photography is its own adventure, and stretches back two and a half centuries
to the late Edo Era.
Anyone passingly familiar with Japanese
history knows the Edo Period as the time where
the Tokugawa Shogunate ruled the country from
the city of Edo (modern day Tokyo). Unlike the
discord of the previous Sengoku Period, the Edo
Era is characterized by stability, economic growth,
artistic developments, and strict isolationism. In
fact, it was the stability and isolationism that
allowed Japanese people to look inward and
perfect their various arts. However, it was also
during this period that the Dutch—who were
granted permission to trade goods at the port of
Nagasaki—brought the first camera to Japan in
the year 1848.
The camera was purchased by the merchant
Ueno Shunnojo-Tsunetari who had apparently
tried acquiring daguerreotype cameras before.
This first camera maybe the same one he sold to
the daimyo Shimazu Nariakira a year later, a lord
whose intellectual pursuits led him to seek out
western technology and learning. On September
17th, 1857, eight years after procuring the camera,
Lord Shimazu had his retainer, Shiro Ichiki, take a
picture of him in formal attire. The portrait still
survives today, and is the oldest surviving
daguerreotype made by a Japanese photographer.
When the Meiji Era began in 1868, Japan
opened its borders to the west and a flood of new
technology arrived in Japan. By this point, a
number of photography studios had opened. Two
names stand out as perhaps the most important
photographers of the Meiji Era: Ueno Hikoma
(the son of Ueno Shunnojo-Tsunetari who bought
the first Dutch camera) and Uchida Kuichi. Of
these two, Kuichi can be argued to be the more
culturally significant, as he was the only photographer ever granted permission to take pictures of
Emperor Meiji.
Lord Shimazu by Shiro Ichiki
(September 17th, 1857)