Traditional Japanese boat

Category

Library Item

Item no

15162

Title

Traditional Japanese boat

Description

Photograph of a traditional Japanese boat in an unknown location. The ship floats in water surrounded by hills. A small rowing boat is moored at the left-hand side of it, and the mast of a second boat is visible in the background.

Artist / maker

von Stillfried-Ratenicz, Franz

Date

1881

Size

19.5 x 24 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Art and Design Library

An "Isaba-sen" or fishing boat, sailed with one square shaped sail. This type of large cargo boat was mainly used in the West of the Kansai area.

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. The photograph was carefully hand tinted, although much of the colour has faded. This photograph is also known untinted.

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Related images

Related subjects

Landscape > Water > Rivers and streams

Places > Asia > Japan

Transport > Water > Boats

Transport > Water > Junk