Bakumatsu and Meiji period photo albums

From the end of the Tokugawa period to the Meiji era, a photo album was produced that photographed landscapes, Japanese appearances, and life in various parts of Japan, and was sold as a souvenir for foreigners visiting Japan. Since the business base was Yokohama, the port of the opening of the port, it is now called "Yokohama Photography".
In the Digital Archive, you can see four photo albums produced and sold during the late Tokugawa and Meiji eras, landscape photos of Yokohama included in each photo album, and all photos recorded in the photo album by photographer Felice Bearto.

Digital Archive Yokohama's Memory URL: https://archive.lib.city.yokohama.lg.jp/museweb/ (external site)

The photos, which were produced as souvenirs for foreigners in Yokohama, were tailored and sold in 50 to 100 albums with luxurious covers.
The wooden cover is decorated with lacquer work, one of the traditional techniques of Japanese lacquer crafts, and the surface is decorated with gold and silver powder. The contrast between black or vermilion ground color and gold powder gives you a very luxurious impression. White shells are fitted on cranes and women's faces, expressing them three-dimensionally. This is a craft technique called Shibayama crafts.
Makie and Shibayama crafts were both important export crafts that gained popularity overseas during the Meiji era. In particular, Shibayama Crafts is said to have been produced in Yokohama, the opening port, due to growing demand for overseas.
The depictions of Japanese images, such as women playing the koto, bamboo, crane, and Mount Fuji, suggest that the main buyers of the photo album were foreigners.

Reference:

• "Makie Album full of Yokohama colors" Masami Shiraishi ("Citizen Graph Yokohama", No.64 1988.6)
• “Basic Research on Shibayama Crafts - Focusing on the Relationship with Yokohama” Hideko Numata (Yokohama-bijutsukan, Yokohama Citizen Gallery Research Bulletin No. 7, 2005.4)

＊If you search for digital archives with "2001073993", you will be hit by the album itself and 10 images of Yokohama landscape.

[Hand-colored photo album] (outside site)
50 colored photos (in Yokohama landscape: 10)
Billing symbol: 2001073993

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FUJI FROM YOKOHAMA (external site)

THE 101 STONE STEPS AT YOKOHAMA (outside site)

BLUFF GARDENS YOKOHAMA (outside site)

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＊If you search for digital archives with "2027544196", you will be hit by the album itself and 7 Yokohama landscapes.

[Hand-colored photo album] (outside site)
50 colored photos (including Yokohama landscape 7)
Billing symbol: 2027544196

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VIEW OF HONMOKU, NEAR YOKOHAMA (outside site)

HARBOUR FROM CAMP HILL YOKOHAMA (external site)

THEATER STREET YOKOHAMA (outside site)

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＊If you search for digital archives with "2027544200", you will be hit by the album itself and eight images of Yokohama landscape.

[Hand-colored photo album] (outside site)
50 colored photos (including 8 Yokohama landscapes)
Billing symbol: 2027544200

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GRAND HOTEL YOKOHAMA (outside site)

RAILL WAY STAITION YOKOHAMA (outside site)

CHEERY BLOSSOM NOGEYAMA (outside site)

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＊If you search for digital archives with "2027544170", you will be hit by the album itself and eight images of Yokohama landscape.

[Hand-colored photo album] (outside site)
50 colored photos (including 8 Yokohama landscapes)
Billing symbol: 2027544170

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VIEW OF BUND, AT YOKOHAMA (outside site)

MAIN STREET, YOKOHAMA (outside site)

VIEW OF FISHING VILLAGE AT HONMOKU (external site)

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It is said that Bearth came to Japan around 1863 (1863) after serving in the Crimean War and the Arrow War in China as a photographer. In Japan, he photographed many landscapes and customs of Japan throughout the country, and also served in the Shimonoseki War. He is one of the most famous photographers who came to Japan at the end of the Tokugawa period.

Reference: "F. Beat Photo Book 1 Landscapes and People in Japan at the end of the Tokugawa period" Yokohama Archives of History / edition Akashi Shoten 2006

[Photo Album] (2061192614) contains photographs by photographer Felice Bearto.
＊Searching for digital archives with "2061192614" will hit all images of the photos recorded in the album.

[Caale Yokohama] (outside site)

[Street in Yokohama] (outside site)

[Benten Sama Yokohama] (outside site)

[Kanagawa and Tokaido] (outside site)

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