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Nipponophone was an early Japanese record company, releasing the first domestically-produced phonograph in 1910 to commercial success. The company’s president, American Frederick Horn, adopted a large sitting Buddha for advertising, but with a subtle homage to another US brand.
Modern consumerism was just entering its stride and brand identity was emerging as central to advertising. In America, the most well-known music trademark at the time was Victor Records’ Nipper the dog who was depicted tilting his head to listen to his owner’s voice played on a record.
In contrast, designer Sassa Kōka used the otherwise stoically seated Buddha to illustrate the sonic appeal of the new phonograph. Such an image would undoubtedly strike Japanese audiences as unorthodox, but playful imagery was well-known in Japanese art through the Edo period (1600–1868).
During the height of the Japanese picture postcard boom (ehagaki būmu) it was not uncommon to see cards used as advertising. The placement of the address dividing line helps us date it to between 1910, when Nipponophone was founded, and 1918.
The moving Buddha image was used by Nipponophone in other business related ephemera. For example, it can be seen printed on the company’s paper record sleeves; one viewable here through the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia: https://tinyurl.com/4vk8f9sa
The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.
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The earliest surviving photographs of Japan were shot by Eliphalet Brown as part of the Perry Expedition in 1853/54. Among many landscapes, Brown also took a few portraits, including this anonymous Buddhist priest at Shimoda – likely the earliest surviving photo of a Buddhist cleric.
Brown reportedly took more than 400 daguerreotypes during the expedition. Several dozen images, including fifteen from Shimoda, were used to illustrate the official US government report published as the Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan in 1856.
The selected daguerreotypes taken by Brown were first turned into paintings, most often by expedition artist Wilhelm Heine. These were then converted into sepia tone or color-tinted stone lithograph plates for printing; the caption below indicates this image was prepared by artist Peter Krämer.
Lithography is a printing process that uses drawings made with a waxy crayon on a stone plate. Due to a special “gumming” treatment applied to the stone, ink adheres only to the drawn lines, thus allowing prints to be made. The characteristic crayon marks can be easily seen here.
Only six of Brown’s daguerreotypes have been located; some were believed lost when the Philadelphia printer, P. S. Duval, suffered a fire in April 1856. In total, it is believed between 10,000 and 18,000 copies of Perry’s Expedition report were published.
When Perry landed in Shimoda on April 18, 1854, he reported a total of 7,000 inhabitants and nine Buddhist temples. The figure in Brown’s portrait remains unknown. The first volume of Perry’s report is viewable here: https://tinyurl.com/3rpscp9h.
The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.
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The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page. To explore the individual objects, visit the Archived Posts page.
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Following a pair of successful illustrated works on China, publisher Jacob van Meurs secured the rights to issue an illustrated book on Japan in 1669. The engravings, such as we see with the curious Buddhist icon here, were criticized for departing “a long way from the truth.”
Compiled by Arnoldus Montanus, a Protestant Minister who never left Holland, the engravings in Atlas Japannensis draw from both textual descriptions and an older European visual language of Asian idolatry. The work includes 23 large plates and 71 smaller vignettes set within the text.
As for the icon here, the English translation of 1670 reads, “This Image hath thirty Arms, and as many Hands, in each two Arrows, a Face representing a handsome Youth, on his Breast seven humane Faces, with a Crown of Gold, richly inchas’d with Peals, Diamonds, and all sorts of Precious Gems.”
While multi-armed and multi-headed figures are not uncommon in Buddhism, the particular configuration here appears rather fanciful. Nevertheless, we are informed the illustration here represents the Bodhisattva Kannon, further curiously identified in the text as the son of Amida Buddha.
The markings on the pedestal are meant to signify non-alphabetic East Asian writing, but none can be resolved into legible characters.
Kannon’s temple is said to be located on a Buddhist mountain just east of Kyoto, most likely pointing to Mt. Hiei. The fires indicate part of Mt. Hiei’s history, as described by Montanus, when Oda Nobunaga razed Buddhist temples in the region in 1571.
Several of Montanus’ engravings were copied into later works on Japan, helping shape a visual lexicon for Buddhism into the 19th cent. The 1669 Dutch edition of Atlas Japannensis has been digitized by the National Library of the Netherlands, viewable here: tinyurl.com/5n6kstfy.
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Identified as a “Buddhist priest” and holding a prayer wheel, a figure such as this would have passed for a generic Tibetan lama in the visual language of the early 20th century. In this case, however, we also know this monk’s name: Sherab Gyatso.
Scholar Clare Harris discovered an albumen print of the original photograph taken by Thomas Parr during the 1890s in Darjeeling; the negative was inscribed with the name “She-reb.” The monk was the head of the Geluk Monastery at Ghoom (Ghum) and was well known among the British as the “Mongol Lama.”
Gyatso’s image appears in a wide range of media, including travel guides, published travelogues, and postcards between 1890 and the 1910s. As noted by Harris, this monk emerged as a “poster-boy for Tibetan Buddhism” around the area of Darjeeling in northern India.
When posed for this portrait in Parr’s studio, the symbols of Tibetan ritual culture are clearly foregrounded, with one hand thumbing mala beads and the other holding a prayer wheel upright and ready for use.
Notably, a Tibetan-style painting and clay statue of Sherab Gyatso grace Ghoom’s monastery today, both derived from Paar’s photograph.
For further information of Sherab Gyatso and the history of early photography in Northern India and Tibet, see Clare Harris’ Photography in Tibet (2017).
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Just after the discovery of the Buddha’s relics at Piprahwa in 1898, James Ricalton was planning a photographic tour of the world. One of his planned stops was to visit the most famous Buddhist relic of his era, the Buddha’s tooth enshrined in the capital city of Kandy.
Ricalton’s employer, the largest stereoscope firm in the world, Underwood & Underwood, was launching several sets devoted to specific countries; Ceylon was slated to have 30 stereoview cards. Underwood’s slogan, ‘‘to see is to know,’’ drove its message that education was a main objective.
Shooting the Temple of the Tooth, Sri Dalada Maligawa, and a few stupas, this image was the only one for Ceylon showing a Buddhist monk. While it was common to depict monks on alms rounds, Ricalton shows this unnamed monk reading scripture, calling him a priest and scholar in the caption.
The monk sits holding the long, rectangular leaves of a Buddhist scripture in his lap. Views such as this were intended to give a glimpse into the “real lives” of the photographed subjects, thus allowing viewers to travel without the hassle of actually leaving home.
Selling “the world in a box,” stereoviews helped shape a vision of Buddhism for American consumers. For more on the powerful visual language of stereoviews, see Judith Babbitts’ “Stereographs and the Construction of a Visual Culture in the United States,” in History Bytes (2004).
The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.
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After the 1906 earthquake, San Francisco’s Tin How Temple was one of a fraction of Chinese religious institutions to rebuild, reopening in 1911 on the footprint of the original building. Despite the caption, this photo does not show the pre-1906 altar, nor is it a San Francisco temple.
Tin How, the Empress of Heaven, also known as Mazu, was popular along China’s southern coast and revered for her protective powers, especially at sea. Many early Chinese immigrants erected temples dedicated to her and other deities across North America.
The photo shows the altar of the old Chinese temple in Grass Valley, identifiable by the large carved inscription board reading “Waves of favor cross over the seas.” It’s likely the postcard publisher saw a more lucrative opportunity in selling a visual “relic” of the lost Tin How Temple shrine.
Moreover, the Grass Valley temple was dedicated to Houwang, not Mazu, yet both locations were alternatively called the Temple of Many Saints, seen carved on the altar façade from 1875. The Grass Valley temple fell into disrepair by 1933 and was closed soon thereafter.
The altar was preserved and is now displayed at the Nevada Firehouse No.1 Museum. For more history on the Grass Valley temple, see Chuimei Ho and Bennet Bronson’s Chinese Traditional Religion and Temple in NorthAmerica, 1849–1902 (2022).
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[There is an updated version of the map and commentary below, see here]
About this Map and Urban Chinese Temples
This map locates many of the Chinese temples built in San Francisco before the 1906 earthquake and fire. Known generically as miao 廟 (or miu in Cantonese), meaning temple or shrine, most of the non-Chinese American public referred to these structures as “joss houses” in the nineteenth century. A principle function of these temples, from which their American names derived, was to house Chinese religious icons, commonly called “joss.” Rarely, however, did urban temples occupy a whole building; temples were more typically semi-public shrine halls located on the top floor of a multi-story structure. Moreover, these temples were not operated by religious institutions and almost all were owned and operated by various community organizations. Often the largest temples were operated by different district associations (huiguan 會館), while other temples were run by secret fraternal organizations (tang 堂) or various other associations organized around clan lineages or trades. A few seem to have operated as semi-independent institutions. Most temples housed numerous icons that would be worshiped for an array of reasons, but often a temple would be “dedicated” to a single figure who functioned like the patron deity of the association or guild. This icon was typically placed in the central shrine of the main shrine hall. The other floors of the building could have smaller shrines or be used as meeting rooms and work spaces for the organization.
About this Project
Much of the nineteenth and early twentieth photography and illustrations of Chinese religious sites remain unidentified because they are often labeled or captioned as generic “joss houses.” To facilitate identification, I compared contemporary written accounts with items from the visual record of Chinatown and cross referenced them with maps and listed addresses of known temples. The end product was the identification of many images of unknown religious sites and the location of several temples of which we only had a written description. I’m publishing here my working notes for a basic map of the Chinatown temples I have identified. I used the 1885 San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors’ Map as the basis for the main map (directly below) and the 1887 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map and the 1905 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map to help track changes over time. Ultimately, this is the byproduct of a larger project I am currently working on regarding the material culture of early Asian American religions with a focus on early American Buddhist traditions.
*April 2021 Update: Chuimei Ho provided me with some invaluable insights noted below.
*March 2022 Update: I direct all interested readers on this topic to the new publication: Chuimei Ho and Bennet Bronson, Chinese Traditional Religion and Temple in North America, 1849–1920: California (Seattle: Chinese in Northwest America Research Committee, 2022). It combines newspaper and periodical accounts, surviving temple records, and oral histories to create the most up-to-date picture of early Chinese religious life in California.
*March 2024 Update: Some of the information below helped form my arguments presented “Buddhist Material Culture in the United States,” in The Oxford Handbook of American Buddhism, eds. Ann Gleig and Scott Mitchell, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 462–482.
Map
Numbers on the map correspond to the temples listed in the key below. A “[?]” indicates that I have not been able to identify an exact address for the temple and its placement on the map is approximate. The last temple marked with an “X” was located on Pine Street which is not included on this map. I have decided to keep the Romanization for the organizational names as they appear today (even if they no longer operate temples in San Francisco) and provide the Pinyin with Chinese characters in parenthesis. Lastly, this map is syncretic, not all of the temples existed at the same time; please see individual temple descriptions below.
Map of Temples in San Francisco’s Chinatown: 1850s-1906
Highlights
Some of oldest temples in Chinatown are thought to be the Sam Yup building shrine [#7], more popularly known as the Tin How Temple (Tianhou miao 天后廟) and the Kong Chow temple [#X], both believed to have been constructed in the early 1850s, though not without some dispute. Waverly Place, the two-block road between Sacramento Street and Washington Street, was known among the Chinese as Tin How Temple Street (Tianhou miao jie 天后廟街) and became the home to the greatest density of Chinese temples by the 1890s. The most popular sites for tourists were the two locations of the Ning Yung temple [originally at #21, then at #4], the original Hop Wo headquarters and temple [#20], and the Yeong Wo temple [#19].
Among the temples listed on the map where the central icon can be identified, three were dedicated to the semi-historical figure Guandi 關帝 [#21/#4, #20/#11, #X], two were dedicated to the Empress of Heaven (i.e. Tianhou), also known as the goddess Mazu 媽祖 [#7, #14], and one to the popular Buddhist figure Guanyin Bodhisattva [#10]. Another popular icon was the Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heavens (Xuantian shangdi 玄天上帝), also known as the Emperor of the North (Beidi 北帝), whose icon I suspect may have traveled between two or three different locations [#12, (#14?), #8], in addition to having his own temple in the 1890s [#5]. Among the numerous fraternal societies that operated temples [including #16, #17, #18], the Chee Kong Society [#9] and Gee Tuck Society [#8] operated two of the most popular.
Selected Temples (With selected Information and Imagery)
1. Lung Kong Association (Longgang gongsuo 龍岡公所)[9 Brooklyn Place]: the central icons were five glorified cultural heroes, Liu Bei 劉備 (center), Guan Yu 關羽 (center right), Zhang Fei 張飛 (center left), Zhao Yun 趙雲 (far right), and Zhuge Liang 諸葛亮 (far left)[for more on the image below, see here]
Main shrine of temple, from Frank Leslie’s Sunday Magazine, April 1888, photograph by Iasiah Taber
2. Temple of Golden Flower (Jinhua 金花)[4 Brooklyn Place]: the central icon was Lady Golden Flower (Jinhua niangniang 金花娘娘), a figure known to protect the health of women and children
Interior of the Temple of Golden Flower, illustration from Masters’ “Our Pagan Temples” (1892)
3. Lord Tam Temple (Tamgong miao 譚公廟)[Oneida Place]: the central icon was Lord Tam, often considered a patron saint of seafarers, this temple was in existence in 1892
4. Ning Yung Association (Ningyang huiguan 寧陽會館)[25 Waverly Place]: constructed around 1890, the central icon was Guandi [see also #21]
Illustration of the second story balcony of the temple, from Masters’ “Our Pagan Temples” (1892)
7. Sam Yup Association (Sanyi huiguan 三邑會館)[33 Waverly Place]: Possibly operating as an independent temple, the central icon of the Tin How Temple was Tin How (the Empress of Heaven, also known as Mazu); the temple is believed to have opened in 1852, per claims in the 1890s, but there is no corroborating evidence to support this early date
Photo of front steps of temple, photo by Arthur Genthe, from his Old Chinatown (1912)
8. Gee Tuck Society (Zhide tang 至德堂)[35 Waverly Place]: The central icon was possibly the Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heavens [*04/2021: Chuimei Ho kindly notes this icon was on the top floor, not associated with the Gee Tuck shrine on second floor]; this shrine was in existence by the mid 1880s.
Fritz Muller postcard of Tin How Temple with old Gee Tuck temple on second floor of taller building on right – (publication c. 1905)
9. Chee Kong Society (Zhigong tang 致公堂)[32 (or 69) Spofford Street]: the central icon remains unknown
Photograph of second and third stories of the Chee Kong building by Adolph Wittemann, from his Chinese Customs (1892) [**4/2021 Update**: Chuimei Ho has kindly informed me this is a photograph of the Chee Kong lodge in Portland, not San Francisco; indeed the brick work is different on the two buildings.]
10. Guanyin Temple (Guanyin miao 觀音廟)[60 Spofford Street]: the central icon was Guanyin
11. Hop Wo Association (Hehe huiguan 合和會館)[840 Washington Street] the location of the Hop Wo Association headquarters in the mid-1880s, I am unsure if they had a temple at this address as well [see also #20]
12. Eastern Glory Temple (Donghua miao 東華廟)[possibly 929 Dupont Street]: opened in 1871, a central icon was the Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heavens
Central shrine of Eastern Glory Temple, stereoview photograph by Eadweard Muybridge (c. 1871)
Likely illustration of Eastern Glory Temple, Harper’s Weekly, 25 March 1871
13. Yan Wo Association (Renhe huiguan 和會館)[St. Louis Alley/933 Dupont Street]: the central icon was possibly the Buddhist heavenly king Virūpākṣa (Guangmu tianwang 廣目天王) [*4/2021 update: some sources claim it was Guandi]
14. Jackson Street Temple/Temple of Li Po Tai [730 Jackson Street]: a central icon was the Empress of Heaven or possibly at one time the Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heavens; the famed Chinatown physician Li Po Tai (Li Putai 黎普泰), I conjecture, may have owned this temple, thus tracing its opening to the early 1870s
Possible illustration of Jackson Street Temple or Eastern Glory Temple [#12], from Shearer, The Pacific Tourist (1876)
19. Yeong Wo Association (Yanghe huiguan 陽和會館)[approx. 728 Sacramento Street]: the central icon was the semi-historical figure Houwang 侯王
Image of Houwang, photograph from “Cymbals Crash…,” San Francisco Call, 22 September 1903
20. Hop Wo Association (Hehe huiguan 合和會館)[751 Clay Street]: in existence by 1876 if not much earlier, the central icon was Guandi [see also #11]
Shrine of Guandi, from Masters’ “Our Pagan Temples” (1892), photograph by Iasiah Taber
21. Ning Yung Association (Ningyang huiguan 寧陽會館)[517 Broadway Street]: constructed in 1864 and used until around 1890, the central icon was Guandi [see #4]
Illustration of temple interior, from unknown periodical [here]
X. Kong Chow Association (Gangzhou huiguan 岡州會館)[512 Pine Street]: constructed in 1853, the central icon was Guandi
Illustration of temple interior, from Loomis’ “The Heathen at Our Doors” (1870)
Online Resources:
Chinese in Northwest America Research Committee (http://www.cinarc.org/index.html): This group published an initial map of Chinatown organizations in 2018 [here], upon which I have expanded and fine-tuned. I owe the initial impetus of creating a temple map to the outstanding editors of that website.
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Inspired by the success in San Jose and Sacramento, Izumida Junjō 泉田準城 (1866–1951) arrived in Los Angeles in 1904 and opened the city’s first Buddhist temple for Japanese immigrants. After raising funds and purchasing land, a newer and larger temple was opened in 1911 on Savannah Street.
Associated with Nishi Hongan-ji, a Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist organization headquartered in Kyoto, Izumida organized the Rafu Bukkyō-kai 羅府仏教会, the Buddhist Mission of Los Angeles. It was meant to meet Japanese immigrants’ needs for funerals, memorial services, and spiritual guidance.
Possibly in celebration and promotion of the new temple, the Mission issued picture postcards highlighting both the interior and exterior of the building. The colorful illustrated elements on the front reveal an Arts and Crafts influence popular in the early 20th century.
The building was meant to reflect both American residential architecture and Japanese temple architecture. The latter can be seen in the curved eaves on the roof and the temple-style gate over the front porch.
The interior also shows a hybrid style, with church-like pews set in front of a traditional Japanese Buddhist altar.
As a Jōdo Shinshū temple, the shrine is dedicated to Amida Buddha, here with a scroll bearing his name. For more on the history of this LA temple, see Michihiro Ama, Immigrants to the Pure Land: The Modernization, Acculturation, and Globalization of Shin Buddhism (2011).
The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.
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Often overshadowed by San Francisco, by 1890 Fresno’s Chinatown was one of the largest in California and the center of much religious activity. Notably, among the few surviving 19th century Chinese American religious icons, we can include those from Fresno’s Temple of Many Saints.
The Chinese diaspora community opened many religious centers across the Pacific under the name Temple of Many Saints (liesheng gong 列聖宮) for use among local Chinese immigrants. Fresno’s temple opened in the 1880s and was located on G Street.
This Fresno Bee archival photograph shows three of the five icons displayed on the main altar. Closed to the public in 1936, the temple was demolished in 1965 shortly after this photograph; the temple artifacts were donated to the Fresno Historical Society and were in storage until last year.
The five icons included the Northern Emperor, Guandi, Tianhou, Huatuo, and Caishen, also known as the “God of Wealth” (seen here). At times, the Buddhist figure Guanyin replaced one of these icons in the Temple of Many Saints found across North America, but that was not the case in Fresno.
Guandi (seen here) was a deified historical general and cultural hero who was a symbol of integrity and loyalty. Widely celebrated by many Chinese district associations and fraternal societies, Guandi was arguably the most popular early Chinese American deity.
The Northern Emperor was a celestial deity famed among many immigrants from southern China. Last year, the Chinese American Museum Project and the Fresno Historical Society arranged a “From China to Fresno: A 150-year Cultural Journey” exhibit, see here: tinyurl.com/4jeea4cu.
The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.
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Personal Site of Peter Romaskiewicz 