A vegetable shop

Category

Library Item

Item no

15127

Title

A vegetable shop

Description

An open-fronted greengrocery displays its wares in a Japanese street. The vegetables sit on 'yatai' (food stalls) in bamboo baskets and on low wooden tables. A variety of sweet potatoes, radishes, eggplants, and other root vegetables is visible.
Two women and a child stand on the left-hand side of the picture, while three men negotiate prices on the right-hand side. A group of onlookers gathers behind a 'daihachi guruma' (a large wheel cart) on the right; probably curious about the photographer and his camera.
The wooden buildings have low sloping roofs. This shop may have been only temporary, the kind that was common in Nineteenth-century Japanese streets.

Artist / maker

von Stillfried-Ratenicz, Franz

Date

1881

Size

19.5 x 24 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Art and Design Library

During the Meiji Era, the Japanese population would mainly eat rice, fish and beans. Vegetables were eaten in small quantities and were often served pickled. Some foods such as beef, pork and bread were only introduced in the Meiji Era during which they became quite popular. In the early 20th century though, many people returned to the traditional Japanese diet and Western food would take many more years to become accepted.

This item is part of a collection of prints from the studio of Baron Franz von Stillfried-Ratenicz, an Austrian photographer practising in Japan in the late 1870's. Von Stillfried ran a studio in Yokohama at the same time as his brother Raimund, who was also known as 'Baron Stillfried'. This caused a great deal of confusion with the local residents and visitors to Japan in the Meiji Period, and with art historians today.

This album, which dates from 1879-83, comprises 67 separate mounted prints presented in a lacquerware box. Albums of this kind were popular among foreign tourists, who frequently selected the individual prints they wished to include from the studio's collection. Many of these albumen prints were hand tinted. This was a laborious process for which von Stillfried employed, at the height of his success, a substantial number of Japanese workers. Contrary to many pictures in the Dyer collection, this photograph was not hand tinted.

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Related subjects

Business > Service industry > Shops

People > Adults > Men

People > Adults > Women

People > Children > Babies

Places > Asia > Japan

Transport > Land > Carts and wagons

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