Japan on a glass plate: the adventure of photography in Yokohama and beyond, 1853-1912

Uittreksel

"Between the twilight years of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867) and the end of the Meiji Era (1868-1912), photography offered a unique insight into the rapid transformation of Japan from an isolated, feudal society to a modern, industrialised state. In the five decades that followed the opening of the country in 1853, the camera evolved from an imported novelty to a familiar witness of Japanese daily life. Operating from the recently opened treaty port of Yokohama and elsewhere, early practitioners of photography, both Japanese and foreign, plied an often precarious trade while laying the foundations of what would become a highly competitive industry with a global reach. Whether cherished as souvenirs of an exotic land of fond imagination or curated as visual documents of a fast-changing society, these images, often packaged in exquisitely produced albums, enjoyed a wide circulation abroad and played an important role in influencing perceptions of Japan in the West into the early twentieth century. Drawing from an extensive private collection assembled over many years, this book presents a unique selection of nineteenth-century photographs of Japan, many of them published here for the first time."-- Provided by publisher.