Tattooed palanquin bearers

Category

Library Item

Item no

15139

Title

Tattooed palanquin bearers

Description

A Japanese man is about to be carried away by two tattooed palanquin bearers. He wears a casual kimono and his hair seems to have been cut short in the Western style. He is sitting in a 'shitekago', a travelling chair made of braided bamboo and suspended by a single crossbeam. The straw screens on the sides have been rolled onto the roof.
The carriers are wearing broad bamboo hats ('kasa') and straw sandals whilst one has a loincloth and the other a short robe. Both are covered with tattoos; the one on the left-hand side has the image of a dragon on his back and the other one, a floral design. They both hold a cane ('ikizue') used to regulate their breathing while carrying a client away.
They are standing in front of a two-storey wooden house with a tiled roof. Traditional Japanese elements such as paper walls ('shoji') are visible, but also Western ones such as the glass windows. The photograph was taken outdoors.

Artist / maker

von Stillfried-Ratenicz, Franz

Date

1881

Size

19.5 x 24 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Art and Design Library

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.
In this particular photograph, the painter chose to colour the three men and the palanquin to put the emphasis on them. The University of Nagasaki Library owns another copy of this photograph on which the painter has drawn different designs on the carriers' backs.

Palanquins were a very popular form of transportation in Japan until they were replaced by rickshaws ('jinrikisha') in the 1870s. Each social class had its own type of palanquin: for instance, the 'shitekago' visible in this picture was used by the general public for road and mountain passages. The customer would sit in a semi-recumbent posture that Westerners would find particularly uncomfortable, even if a cushion was placed of the chair.
Palanquin bearers (or 'kumosuke') were used to travel long distances at a fast pace and quick ones would reach Kyoto from Tokyo in four days and a half.

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Related images

Related subjects

Clothing and dress > Accessories > Hats

Clothing and dress > Accessories > Tattoos

Places > Asia > Japan

Transport > Land > Palanquins