This is Japan at the end of the feudal Edo period, retouched by a painter and entrepreneur. After learning basic photography from a visiting American, Shimooka bought his teacher’s equipment and, in 1862, opened one of Japan’s first photo studios in Yokohama, the bustling port city. His business catered almost exclusively to Americans and Europeans eager for souvenirs of ““exotic’’ Japan: grappling sumo wrestlers, alluring geisha, silk spinners and basket makers. Shimooka quit his business after the 1868 Meiji restoration launched Japan’s industrialization. As capitalism, militarism and finally war reduced much of ancient Japan to rubble, Shimooka–and his images–were forgotten.
Seven years ago the Tokyo bookstore Maruzen launched a global search for Shimooka’s works, recognizing that they represent a valuable historical archive. Working through British art dealers, Maruzen purchased 148 of his pictures, most from antiques shops in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, and made them available to Shinchosha. Captured on monochrome glass negatives, many of the images were hand-colored before sale. Many bear notes from travelers. ““I secured these photographs of the city of Yokohama, Japan, in the year of our Lord 1867,’’ wrote U.S. naval officer Horatio L. Hyatt on the back of one landscape bearing the handwritten title ““Entrance to a Temple or Castle.’’ They are rare reflections of a bygone Japan.
