JAPAN. [spine title] TWO ALBUMS OF 108 ALBUMEN PHOTOGRAPHS OF JAPAN, MOST HAND-TINTED, PRODUCED BY PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS, ca. 1880s

[various places in Japan, 1880. Two oblong albums, 15 1/2 x 11 in., bound in 3/4 leather and koi fish patterned cloth. A collection of images of shrines, river views, hotels, natural settings, and villages of 19th century Japan. Studio photos laid down on stiff card stock mounted on cloth tape stubs. Images are on rectos and versos of the card stock, one to a page, each 7 3/4 x 10 1/4 in. Most are identified with printed captions and numbers. Some light rubbing to leather and soiling to binding, but overall very good, images all sharp, clear. Many can be recognized as the work of Kusakabe Kimbei (1841-1943) or his studio.
The first album of 62 hand-tinted albumen photos are primarily views of Nikko, a small city in the mountains north of Tokyo, famous for the Shinto shrine Tochigi. Photos include a group of stone statues lining a path; Chiusenji Lake; a Sacred Bridge; Dainichido Garden; Iyemitsu Tomb; Yomeimon, Great Gate; etc. There are also more general images of a flower seller; women gathering tea leaves; a sleeping girl; a tattooed man; a basket cellar; rice planters; and a photo of a group of Japanese men and women posing with five Western men and women at tea in a room in front of a painted screen. Perhaps someone in this group was the owner of the albums.
The second album of 40 hand-tinted, and 6 untinted albumen photos show views from Matsushima; Honmoku, near Yokohama; Noge Hill, Yokohama; the Room of Hot Spring Place, Hakone; Spring Scenes of Koganei near Tokyo; Nishi Honganji Temple Carving Gate at Kioto; Kurodani Graveyard at Kioto; any many more. Cameras for the amateur photographer were just beginning to become available in the 1880s, so travellers were still dependent on other ways of capturing their memories. Professional photographers often supplied images of tourist spots, either individually or in souvenir albums available for purchase. Many, if not all of the images in these two albums are products of the photographic studio of Kusakabe Kimbei in Yokohama. Although they do not bear his stamp, the numbered photos and captions can be identified in catalogues of his work. Kusakabe Kimbei trained under Felice Beato (ca.1825-1907), an Italian living in Japan, first as a colorist and later as a photographer. He opened his own studio in 1881 and his images often captured the fast vanishing world of old Japan. [see: Chris Kincaid's essay "Felice Beato and Kimbei Kusakabe, Photographers of 1800s Japan," (Japan Powered: 2018)].