Art historian Kinoshita Naoyuki points out that photography not only reflected but also contributed to the cultural changes that Japan was going through and are going through since the end of the Edo period, “creating new images and perspectives that helped define Japan’s identity both to the eyes of his own people as those of the world.” In what way was photographic practice a participant in and reflection of these great socio-historical changes? Next offered the first part from this brief review of the history of its development in Japan.
First contacts with photography
There is a debate about when it was taken and what the first photograph in history was, but the truth is that the daguerreotype procedure was presented to society in Paris in 1839. At that time, Japan was going through the Edo period and the so-called sakokua policy of relative isolation that was carried out by the shogunate by which contact with individuals from almost any country in the world was not allowed.
It was via a Dutch ship (Holland was one of the few nations allowed to have economic relations with Japan) that a daguerreotype camera entered the country for the first time through the port of Nagasaki in 1848. A few years later, in 1853, the American warship fleet of Commodore Matthew C. Perry landed on Japanese soil, with the aim of demanding the opening of trade with Japan and the signing of treaties between the two nations.
It was in the context of Commodore Perry’s second mission, in 1854, that the first photograph was taken in Japan by photographer Eliphalet Brown Jr. It is believed that the first photograph taken by a Japanese was the portrait of daimyo from Satsuma who made Ichiki Shiro in 1857.
The first photographic representations of Japan
With the opening of new ports to international trade that occurred in 1859, numerous foreigners arrived in the country, among them European and North American photographers who not only established the first photographic studios but also trained what would later become the first generation of photographers. natives.
It is worth mentioning figures such as Felice Beato (notable for his photographic records of various Asian countries and significant historical events such as the Indian Rebellion of 1857 or the Second Opium War in China) or Baron Raimund von StillfriedWilliam Saunders or Charles Parker, among others.
These early photographic representations of Japan were images made by Westerners and intended, in turn, for a Western audience, so they were marked by exoticism and the reproduction and production of stereotypes. orientalists. The photography of “customs and manners” of the Japanese (which were characterized by illustrating, through extremely stereotypical staging, actions such as sleeping, drinking sake or performing a harakiri) as well as views of landscapes and monuments and the recording of news events, had great value in the international market (especially since the access that Westerners had had to Japan had been late when compared to territories considered “exotic ”, like China or India).
The corpus of images made during the period is usually known as Yokohama-shashin (Yokohama photographs, so called because most of the photographers were located in that port city), a genre that would be taken up again by the first Japanese photographers such as Shimooka Renjô, Ueno Hikoma and Kusakabe Kimbei.
The Yokohama photographs were characterized by being manually painted in color, and generally formed part of luxurious photo albums sold to travelers visiting Japan (sometimes including portraits of these foreigners dressed in kimono or armor) or exported to Europe and the United States.
Development of the photographic industry
Although at first photographic practices had been limited to being carried out in the three ports established for foreign trade, with the arrival of the Meiji era in 1868, establishments dedicated to these practices began to multiply throughout the whole country.
In addition to the aforementioned uses of photography, mention should be made of the documentary records required by the government of the modernization tasks that were being carried out throughout the country and the establishment of settlements in territories such as Hokkaidô (these images served both to report to the government about the progress of the tasks carried out there as well as to inform the Japanese people about the government’s efforts), the cataloging of Japanese cultural treasures, as well as the growing demand, on the part of the population, for photographers specialized in taking Pictures. Thus, by 1870, the number of commercial photography studios had increased exponentially, and the applications of photography had expanded markedly.
To this must be added the introduction, replacing wet collodion, of the dry plate in photography around 1880, a fact that would reduce costs and facilitate the technique, allowing the number of people who could dedicate themselves to photography to considerably expand. However, it would not be until the 1890s when what we today call artistic photography would appear.
She is a photographer, a technician in Japanese Language and Culture and a graduate in Documentary Photography Research and Conservation. Her work has been exhibited individually and collectively in Argentina, Mexico, the United States, Spain and Japan. She has published two photobooks, “Éter” and “Los sueños”. She lives and works in Buenos Aires.
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