1865 Japan Ambrotype of Samurai Warrior, Photographer Akiri, Dated, 2 Items. This ambrotype is arguably the earliest Japanese ambrotype known to survive!1) 1865 Japan Ambrotype of Samurai Warrior. Inscription on the red stamp, on kiri cased lid reads : To Keio first year (1865). The photographer Akira took this picture in Tokyo. (赤い切手には「慶応元年（1865年）へ」と刻まれています。写真家のAkira氏が東京で撮影した写真).
Important note from madajonokuchi The red, circular seal on the box reads, 'Osaka, Sennichimae xx, Midosuji. Futaba Kenzaburo.' So the photographer's name is Futaba Kenzaburo. Doesn't seem to be much info about him anywhere. I can't read the date on the wooden box but it seems to start with Meiji .... so it's probably 1868 or 69 |
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2) Cyanotype, carte de visite of the same Samurai Warrior attributed to photographer "Akira of Tokyo".
Provenance: From the beautiful ambrotype collection of Jeremy Rasse, Pelissanne, France. Free priority shipping, (Will and want to ship to Japan as I consider this group as the earliest, important Japanese ambro outside of any museum, signature required. 2 Week 100% money back guaranteed if not matching description (minus shipping).
When Japan opened its ports to the West in the 1850s,
photography—called “shashin”, literally, “a copy of truth”, soon became widely
available. High-end professional salons and open-air studios operated by
itinerant practitioners offered portraits at every price range. While the
popularity of ambrotypes, a positive photograph on glass, was short-lived in
the United States, Japanese ambrotypes were in demand from the early 1870s
until the end of the nineteenth century. Housed in poetry-inscribed kiri-wood boxes, they provide an intimate
and rare glimpse of how modern Japanese society represented itself.James Ambrose Cutting patented the ambrotype process in
1854. Ambrotypes were most popular in the mid-1850s to mid-1860s. Cartes de
visite and other paper print photographs, easily available in multiple copies,
replaced them.
An ambrotype is comprised of an underexposed glass negative
placed against a dark background. The dark backing material creates a positive
image. Photographers often applied pigments to the surface of the plate to add
color, often tinting cheeks and lips red and adding gold highlights to jewelry,
buttons, and belt buckles. Ambrotypes were sold in either cases or ornate
frames to provide an attractive product and also to protect the negative with a
cover glass and brass mat. The collodion positive, or ambrotype, first
appeared in about 1853. By the 1860s the process had largely disappeared
from high street studios, but it remained popular with itinerant open-air
photographers until the 1880s, because portraits could be made in a few minutes
while sitters waited.
The cyanotype process, also known as the blueprint process,
was first introduced by John Herschel (1792 – 1871) in 1842. Sir John
was an astronomer, trying to find a way of copying his notes.
Herschel managed to fix pictures using hyposulphite of soda
as early as 1839. In the early days the paper was coated with iron salts and
then used in contact printing. The paper was then washed in water and resulted
in a white image on a deep blue background. (Apart from the cyanotype process,
Herschel also gave us the words photography, negative, positive and snapshot.
Kiri wood is native to Japan and is akin to balsa wood
(except stronger). Proper name is “Paulownia” and
is known in Japan as kiri (桐), specifically referring to P.
tomentosa; it is also known as the "Princess tree" or the ”Phoenix
tree”. Paulownia is the mon of the office of the
Japanese prime minister, and also serves as the Government Seal of
Japan used by the Cabinet and the Government of
Japan (whereas the chrysanthemum is the Imperial Seal of
Japan).