Japan

Adolfo Farsari’s Kamakura Daibutsu Photograph

For all the new Buddhas in the West posts
follow us on Bluesky & Instagram

In 1886, a year after Adolfo Farsari opened his Yokohama photography studio, it burned to the ground during a city-wide fire. Farsari spent the next several months traveling Japan to replenish his stock, including several Buddhist sites popular among globetrotting tourists.

Moreover, with the destruction of Farsari’s studio, he also lost the older negatives of Felice Beato and Baron von Stillfried. Farsari’s studio was among the last of the foreign studios in Yokohama as more Japanese photographers were turning to professional ventures.

Farsari’s scene of the Kamakura Daibutsu shows a person in the middle of prayer.

We can also see another man standing on the stone pedestal, a common sight in photographs of this era.

Farsari’s work earned the praise Rudyard Kipling who complimented him on the fidelity of the hand-coloring. Further commentary on Farsari’s Kamakura Daibutsu photo can be found here: https://peterromaskiewicz.com/2019/01/19/farsaris-dai-butsu-visual-literacy-of-buddhism/

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.

For Related Buddhas in the West Posts Featuring Historical Photography:

For the Most Recent Buddhas in the West Posts:

Hyōgo Daibutsu at Kobe F.S. Postcard

For all the new Buddhas in the West posts
follow us on Bluesky & Instagram

The original Hyōgo Daibutsu at Nōfuku-ji was the third largest Buddhist statue in Japan. It was dismantled by the Ordinance on the Collection of Metals issued in 1941 as part of Japanese war efforts during WWII.

Located in the port city of Kobe, the Daibutsu was approximately 12 meters in height. It became a popular tourist destination at the end of the 19th century, thus many photographs and postcards remain of the now lost icon.

This “undivided back” design informs us the postcard was printed before 1907. The “F.S.” in the stamp box refers to the publisher’s name (which I haven’t identified).

Many Japanese postcards of this period were hand-colored collotype prints. You can see the red ink splotches the colorist used to suggest design elements.

An albumen print photograph by Kusakabe Kinbei is held by the Nagasaki University Library, viewable here: http://oldphoto.lb.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/zoom/jp/record.php?id=1044

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.

For Related Buddhas in the West Posts Featuring Postcards:

For the Most Recent Buddhas in the West Posts:

Herbert Ponting’s Japanese Pilgrims near Lake Kawaguchi Stereoview

For all the new Buddhas in the West posts
follow us on Bluesky & Instagram

After 1900, publishers of stereoviews started emphasizing their educational rather than entertainment value, oftentimes selling thematic boxed sets. The card here is part of Underwood & Underwood’s 100-view Japan set from 1904.

We know from the negative number (#3852) this stereophoto was taken by expedition photographer Herbert Ponting during his trip to Japan in 1903. The location at Lake Kawaguchi was a well-known gathering spot for pilgrims looking to ascend Mt. Fuji.

By 1904 it was increasingly common to print educational information on the reverse of the card. Here we also find additional books recommended, including Lafcadio Hearn’s Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, from which much of the information is cobbled together.

The distinctive clothing and ritual apparatus mark the traveler as a religious pilgrim.

The Ponting-Underwood set, published on the outset of the Russo-Japanese War, became one of the more popular sets on Japan. A scan of the full collection by the Smithsonian Institute is viewable here: https://tinyurl.com/2ukzu87c

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.

For Related Buddhas in the West Posts Featuring Herber Ponting’s Photography:

For the Most Recent Buddhas in the West Posts:

Albumen Photograph of Sanjūsangen-dō Kannon

For all the new Buddhas in the West posts
follow us on Bluesky & Instagram

For visitors to Japan in the 1860s, Kyoto was seen as brimming with dangerous anti-foreign samurai. This changed in the 1870s when it was transformed by tourism, driven in part by foreign photography studios who were allowed to shoot the city for the 1872 Kyoto Exposition.

While Europeans knew of Kyoto’s Sanjūsangen-dō through late 17th century book engravings, the first photographs of the temple likely did not circulate until the early 1870s. This albumen print is by an unknown commercial photographer and likely dates to the 1880s.

The central icon is a Thousand-armed Kannon from the 13th century and is recognized as a National Treasure of Japan.

There appears to be a double exposure in this photograph, with a priest kneeling in front of the icon. The colorist gave the priest’s robes a wash of blue, but the paint did not cover over the woodwork designs of the altar.

Baron von Stillfried was among the foreign studio owners who photographed Kyoto in 1872. One of his albums, with views of Kyoto, can be seen through the Metropolitan Museum of Art here: https://tinyurl.com/yuuf52u9.

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.

For Related Buddhas in the West Posts Featuring Kyoto, Japan:

For the Most Recent Buddhas in the West Posts:

Daibutsu and Tour Group Glass Lantern Slide

For all the new Buddhas in the West posts
follow us on Bluesky & Instagram

In the pre-film era, magic lantern slides were a part of popular entertainment alongside panoramas and mechanical theaters. Many amateur lecturers who returned from a trip would book a church hall or town theater to show slides illustrating their personal travel narrative.

While photos and postcards were shared with friends in the home, glass lantern slides were also intended for showy public display. Consequently, glass slides were often hand-painted in eye-catching color; here we see the bronze Kamakura Daibutsu in uncharacteristic magenta.

Two pieces of glass, one of which bears the positive photographic print, sandwich the image to keep it safe from scratches and debris. Unlike the exemplar here, the publisher would often print their name on the matting around the image.

Based on the layout of the Daibutsu grounds, this photo was taken around 1910.

The University of Hawaii at Manoa has a large collection of slides as part of their Japan Collection, viewable here: https://tinyurl.com/8hdvfzad

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.

For Related Buddhas in the West Posts Featuring Historical Glass Lantern Slides:

For the Most Recent Buddhas in the West Posts:

Paris’ Panorama du Tour du Monde Advertising Card

For all the new Buddhas in the West posts
follow us on Bluesky & Instagram

Panorama du Tour du Monde: By the 1900 Paris Exposition, amusement concessions were a major draw for all exposition visitors. Not far from the foot of the Eiffel Tower one found the Panorama du Tour du Monde which took patrons on a virtual voyage from Spain to Japan.

Built by Alexandre Marcel for a French sea-transport company, the architecture called to mind exotic locales with Asian-inspired structures. The main entrance was modeled on the Tōshō-gū in Nikkō, Japan. Some sources claim the red pagoda was based on a Chinese model.

Visitors were drawn in by large panoramic paintings of various foreign countries to give a sense of virtual travel. More astonishingly, the concession integrated many indigenous performers who engaged in various trades while wearing traditional foreign costumes

The beautiful lithographic print was part of an advertising campaign for a French company selling tapioca pearls, called “perles du Japon.”

King Leopold II was so struck by the building, he had Marcel build the Japanese Tower in Brussels. For more on the Tour du Monde exhibition, see https://tinyurl.com/2vbmr3c7.

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.

For Related Buddhas in the West Posts Featuring France:

For the Most Recent Buddhas in the West Posts:

Hand-Colored Daibutsu Postcard Comparison

For all the new Buddhas in the West posts
follow us on Bluesky & Instagram

The US postal service delivered over 900 million postcards on the eve of WWI. In Japan, that number was 1.5 billion. Despite nearly doubling the total number of cards mailed, many Japanese picture postcards were also rather unique – they were individually hand painted.

As far as we can tell, a template card was painted by a specialist before it was sent out with dozens of plain cards to colorists, many of whom were women. At times you can find more notable coloring discrepancies between paired images.

Note the differences in the boy’s garments, the open umbrella, the obi-sash, and stone pedestal in the background. It is also possible to see how the washes of color line up imperfectly with the collotype print in black ink.

Due to the temple landscaping around the Kamakura Daibutsu, we know this photograph was likely taken between 1903 and 1910. According to the postal mark, the stamp was cancelled on October 15, 1912 (Taisho 1) and mailed to the United States (thus requiring a 4 sen stamp). We also have a rare publisher’s mark along the edge: James Eades & Co., Yokohama, Japan.

The Kamakura Daibustu was among the most popular tourist destinations in Japan and countless images of the bronze statue were sent as postcards around the world in the early 20th century.

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.

For Related Buddhas in the West Posts Featuring the Kamakura Daibutsu:

For the Most Recent Buddhas in the West Posts:

Liebig’s Komusō Advertising Card

For all the new Buddhas in the West posts
follow us on Bluesky & Instagram

Komusō 虚無僧: Victorian trade card illustrations leaned into stereotypes to create collectables with easily identifiable cultures and peoples. With the 1905 Japanese modes of transportation series, the setting is provided a curious Buddhist figure: a flute playing monk.

The British Liebig company started producing trade cards in 1872 and by the turn of the century the vibrant chromolithographic prints were widely popular and printed in several languages. This set comprised six cards, with the one here focusing on the Japanese palanquin.

The faceless Komusō – monks of nothingness – were depicted in woodblock prints of the late Edo period and were seen in souvenir photographs of Yokohama studios in c.1890s. Consequently they became one among the visual icons of Japan for Western tourists.

The Fuke school of the komusō was prohibited in 1871, but lay shakuhachi flute players continued the tradition of playing in public while dressed in full garb.

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.

For Related Buddhas in the West Posts Featuring Historical Trade Cards:

For the Most Recent Buddhas in the West Posts:

Keystone’s Nara Kokūzō Stereoview

For all the new Buddhas in the West posts
follow us on Bluesky & Instagram

3D Kokūzō 虛空: In the early 20th century, Keystone View Company emerged as a premier publisher of stereoviews with several tens-of-thousands of images in their catalogue. Around 1901, Keystone issued its first views of Japan, including a run of 23 odd-lot stereoviews.

Among their 1901 offerings, a 1/4 were stereo-photographs of religious sites or objects; this includes two views of Buddhist statues. At this time, other companies started offering special Japan box sets and following the Russo-Japanese War Japan sets became far more popular.

The card here depicts the Daibutsu Hall of Tōdai-ji in Nara. Curiously, it does not show the main figure for which the hall is named, the Nara Daibutsu. This icon is Kokūzō Bosatsu, otherwise known as Ākāśagarbha Bodhisattva (Keystone simply labelled it as a “god.”)

Part of Keystone’s commercial success was selling stereoviews to schools across the US. To view part of their early selection of Japan views, see the digitized collection at the Library of Congress, viewable here https://tinyurl.com/bdewbmva.

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.

For Related Buddhas in the West Posts Featuring Japan:

For the Most Recent Buddhas in the West Posts:

American Express Daibutsu Advertisement

For all the new Buddhas in the West posts
follow us on Bluesky & Instagram

After the opening of the Panama Canal and the end of WWI, the first around-the-world commercial cruise was chartered by the American Express Company in late 1922. The following summer of 1923, American Express began advertising for its next cruise using the Great Buddha of Kamakura.

The success of the inaugural cruise is celebrated in the advertising copy. It notes how the journey is “luxuriously comfortable, wholly delightful, and easily obtainable.” The brief itinerary lists the major ports to be visited, including a long 13 day stay in Japan.

The most conspicuous element is the large cropped photo of the “sacred idol of Japan” – the Kamakura Daibutsu. Notably, the photo depicts the inaugural cruise passengers positioned in front, looking directly at the camera lens.

Unfortunately, the Great Kantō earthquake struck in September 1923, damaging the Daibutsu. The Second American Express Cruise Round the World continued, however, leaving New York in November 1923 and returning in March 1924.

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.

For Related Buddhas in the West Posts Featuring Historical Advertising:

For the Most Recent Buddhas in the West Posts: