
Kusakabe Kimbei’s Photographs of Late 19th-Century Japan
In 1881, after working for many years with the European photographers Felice Beato and Baron Raimund von Stillfried as a photographic colourist and assistant, the Japanese photographer Kusakabe Kimbei finally opened his own workshop in the Benten-dōri quarter of Yokohama. He’d soon establish himself as one of the most respected and successful Japanese photographers of his generation, opening another studio in Yokohama’s Honmachi quarter in 1889, and also a branch in the Ginza quarter of Tokyo. The selection here is from the collection held by The Getty in Los Angeles, focusing mostly on work from the early part of Kimbei’s career.
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Playing Samisen, Tsudzumi, Fuye and Taiko
Flower Kept Alive by Putting in Water
Woman with Parasol Posed Being Pulled in a Jinrikisha by a Man Wearing a Straw Rain Coat
Street Amazake Seller
Fire Man
Wrestlers
Kago Travelling Chair
Girls Carrying Paper Lantern in Winter Evening
Home Bathing
Dancing Party
Seated Woman
Woman Reclining with Pipe
Umbrella Maker
Group of Young Women
Jinrikishia
Aug 15, 2017