Japan on a Glass Plate: The Adventure of Photography in Yokohama and Beyond, 1853?1912 | Author: Sebastian Dobson

Drawing from an extensive private collection assembled over many years, this book presents a unique selection of nineteenth-century photographs of Japan, many of which are published here for the first time. Between the twilight years of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867) and the end of the Meiji Era (1868-1912) that followed it, photography offered a unique insight into the rapid transformation of Japan from an isolated, feudal society to a modern, industrialised state. In the four decades that followed the opening of the country in 1853, the camera evolved from an imported novelty to a familiar witness of Japanese daily life.

Whether cherished as souvenirs of an exotic land of fond imagination or curated as visual documents of a fast-changing society, these images by foreign and Japanese photographers, often packaged in exquisitely produced albums, enjoyed a wide circulation abroad and played an important role in influencing perceptions of Japan in the West well into the early twentieth century.

Hardback
27.5 x 26.2 cm
192 pages