Hand-Colored Photos of 19th-Century Japan Document a Society in Transition

The New York Public Library's digital collection 'Photographs of Japan' features 110 hand-colored images from between 1890 and 1909, capturing the waning days of traditional Japanese society amid rapid Westernization. The photographs document the period from the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1853 to the Meiji restoration in 1868, when Japan's forced opening led to social upheaval, famine, and the introduction of photography by Westerners and Japanese alike. Notable photographers include Italian-British Felice Beato and his Japanese student Kimbei, who assisted Beato in hand-coloring until 1863 before opening his own studio in Yokohama in 1881. The images show traditional dress, kabuki actors, sumo wrestlers, and tattooed subjects, as well as interactions between Japanese and foreigners. The collection provides a resource for understanding Asia's political, social, economic, and artistic history from the 1870s to the early 20th century. The article notes that while Japan's old ways seemed endangered, Western artists were inspired by Japanese woodcut prints, transforming Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art.