Tomioka

Category

Library Item

Item no

15154

Title

Tomioka

Description

A view showing the beach at Tomioka Hachimangu shrine, near Yokohama. Three fishermen take a boat filled with nets and baskets to sea. The beach has trees along its edge and five boats lie on its shore.

Artist / maker

von Stillfried-Ratenicz, Franz

Date

1881

Size

19.5 x 24 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Art and Design Library

In the mid 1870s, Tomioka was a bathing resort popular with Japanese officials of high rank and foreign residents of Yokohama settlements. This spot was photographed by many early photographers and notably by Raimund von Stillfried-Ratenicz's protégé, Kusakabe Kimbei.

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. This photograph has been hand tinted with great care and blue, orange, yellow, violet and green paint have been used to highlight details.

Exhibitions with this item

Other views of this item

Related images

Related subjects

Landscape > Land > Coastlines

Landscape > Water > Seas

People > Agriculture and fisheries > Fishermen

Places > Asia > Japan

Transport > Water > Boats

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