Photographs of the Late Edo / Early Meiji Period
From the Collection of the FUJIFILM SQUARE Photo History Museum

About the exhibition

Documentary photographs taken throughout Japan from the end of the Edo period (1603–1868) through the early Meiji period (1868–1912) are known as “Yokohama photographs.” Felice Beato, a British photographer who came to Japan during this time, photographed scenery and people throughout the country. In 1864, he opened a commercial photography studio in Yokohama, and the captioned albums he sold there to foreign customers were the first albums of Yokohama photographs.

Yokohama photographs became popular as souvenirs among foreign visitors to Japan. In time, Japanese photographers followed, vying with one another to photograph scenery, customs, and daily life throughout Japan and selling the images as Yokohama photograph albums.

Yokohama photograph albums contain between 50 and 100 photographs. These are hand-colored black-and-white albumen prints, each roughly 25 × 30 cm, bound between luxurious lacquered wooden covers decorated with maki-e (designs in sprinkled gold or silver powder) and raden (mother-of-pearl inlay). With their lavish construction, the albums are regarded as decorative art objects that blend Western photography with traditional Japanese crafts. Today, the photographs are gaining renewed recognition for their documentary and cultural value.

This exhibition presents approximately 40 of the finest photographs from Yokohama photograph albums in the collection of FUJIFILM Corporation. We invite you to enjoy these glimpses of the scenery, buildings, daily life, and people of Japan some 150 years ago.

* The works on display are high-quality silver halide prints that faithfully reproduce the original prints.

Exhibition overview