Japan – Woman in winter outfit with umbrella (studio photo, with painted background of Mt. Fuji)
Yokohama, Japan. Hand-tinted albumen print, 10 1/4 x 8 inches (259 x 201 mm); light cockling at corners. Unmounted; housed in an archival mat with clear mounting corners.
[Nagasaki University Library, Catalog Number : 468].
A young woman dressed in a kimono and a haori coat, wears high-heeled clogs, a scarf over her head, and poses with a Japanese umbrella avoiding the rain. Taken in a studio, this is a dramatized photo of a woman dressed for rain. A cover to protect feet from mud is seen at the toes of the clogs.
Ogawa Katsumasa (1860 – 1936) was a pivotal figure in early Japanese photography. He adapted cutting-edge Western technology in photo-printing processes to produce numerous half-tone and collotype publications which transformed the market which had previously concentrated on the more expensive souvenir albums. Ogawa's publications were also instrumental in introducing Japanese art and culture to a mass international audience. He built one of the most successful photographic businesses in late-Meiji Japan. He opened his first portrait studio in Tomioka, Gumma Prefecture, in 1877. [Bennett, Terry. Old Japanese Photographs: Collectors' Data Guide. London: Quaritch, 2006. p. 288].
Condition: Very good.
Item number: 1847
Price: $400.00
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