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Japanese photographer
Shimooka Renj?
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Born
| Sakurada Hisanosuke
March 24, 1823
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Died
| March 3, 1914
(1914-03-03)
(aged 90)
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Nationality
| Japanese
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Horanda F?zoku
(Dutch genre picture) around 1863 on silk.
Kowairozukai
, ca. 1870
Shimooka Renj?
(
下岡 蓮杖
, March 24, 1823 ? March 3, 1914)
was a Japanese
photographer
[1]
and was one of the first professional photographers in
Japan
.
[2]
He opened the first commercial photography studio in
Yokohama
, and in Japan he is widely considered the father of Japanese photography.
[3]
Early life
[
edit
]
He was born with the name Sakurada Hisanosuke
[2]
in
Shimoda
on the
Izu Peninsula
in central
Honsh?
to a
samurai
family.
[3]
When he was thirteen years old he moved to
Edo
(
Tokyo
) to study
painting
and serve as an apprentice to a stock merchant. In 1843 he served in the Shimoda artillery battery
[3]
where he may have been first introduced to
daguerreotypes
from the
Netherlands
.
[2]
However, some accounts say that he was not exposed to photography until he returned to Edo to study art, becoming a student of Kan? T?sen Nakanobu, a well-established painter in service to the shogunate.
[3]
These accounts report that he saw a Dutch photograph at the home of a
Tokugawa
clan member.
[3]
He began studying photography when he could, and moved to
Yokohama
in 1859 or 1860 where he would begin his career in photography.
[3]
Photography
[
edit
]
Renj? acquired his first
camera
in 1861 from the American photographer John Wilson by trading it for a painting of a
panoramic
scene. Shortly thereafter he abandoned his studies in painting and pursued photography as a career. He opened a photographic studio in
Yokohama
in 1862, one of the first in the country.
[4]
He continued to open studios in the city, primarily focusing on
portraiture
, and changed his name to Shimooka Renj? in 1865.
[2]
He taught many photographic students and apprentices before leaving his businesses to his pupils in 1877. He was elected to the
Japan Photographic Society
in 1893.
[2]
Significance
[
edit
]
Renj?’s significance to the history of photography lies in the fact that he helped introduce and spread photography throughout industrializing,
Meiji-era
Japan.
[4]
His commercial studio in Yokohama was thought to be the absolute first in the country for many years.
[5]
Recent discoveries have found that
Ukai Gyokusen
had opened an
ambrotype
portrait
studio in
Edo
only a year or two before Renj? opened his studio in 1862.
[3]
Ueno Hikoma
, a chemist, began operating a studio in
Nagasaki
later the same year.
[5]
Despite this, Renj? was still one of the nation’s first professional photographers, and one of the most successful. He opened several additional studios and businesses across
Yokohama
during his career. (Other contemporaries of Renj? included
Uchida Kuichi
and
Shima Kakoku
.
[2]
)
In addition to being a pioneer of the art, Renj? also helped to establish photography in Japan by teaching it to many of his other countrymen.
[4]
For example, he was the teacher of the great photographer
Yokoyama Matsusabur?
, starting in 1864.
[2]
He also taught many other students including: Usui Shusaburo,
Esaki Reiji
, and
Suzuki Shin'ichi I
and
II
.
[3]
He was honored by the government of Tokyo before his death for his influence,
[4]
and was elected to join the Japan Photographic Society in 1893.
[2]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Morishige Kazuo,
Shimooka Renjo: Pioneer of Japanese Photography (Japanese and English Edition)
. Tokyo: Kokusho Kankokai (February 2, 2015).
ISBN
978-4336057822
.
- Ishiguro Keish?, ed.,
Genteiban: Shimooka Renj? shashinsh?
(Shimooka Renj?: The Pioneer Photographer in Japan) (Tokyo: Shinch?sha, 1999).
- Kinoshita Naoyuki,
Shashingaron: Shashin to kaiga no kekkon
(On the Photographic Image: The Marriage of Photography and Painting) (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1996).
- Worswick, Clark, ed.,
Japan: Photographs, 1845-1905
(New York: Penwick/Knopf, 1979).
- Yokohama Archives of History, "Yokohama shashin sh?shi" (A Concise History of Yokohama Photographs), in
F. Beato bakumatsu Nihon shashinsh?
(A Collection of Photographs from Mid-Eighteenth Century Japan by F. Beato) (Yokohama: Yokohama Kaik? Shiry?kan, 1987).
- Nihon no shashin: Uchinaru katachi, sotonaru katachi, Dai-ichi bu: Torai kara 1945 nen made
(Japanese Photography: From In/Out, Part 1: From its Introduction to 1945), exh. Cat. In Japanese and English (Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 1996).
- Shashin torai no koro
(The Advent of Photography in Japan), exh. cat. In Japanese and English (Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, and Hakodate: Hakodate Museum of Art, 1997).
- Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, editor. 328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers (『日本??家事典』 Nihon shashinka jiten). Kyoto: Tank?sha, 2000.
ISBN
4-473-01750-8
- Rousmaniere, Nicole C., & Hirayama, Mikiko, ed.,
Reflecting Truth: Japanese Photography in the Nineteenth Century
. Hotei Publishing: Amsterdam. 2004.
ISBN
90-74822-76-2
.
- March, Phillip, & Delank, Claudia, ed.
The Adventure of Japanese Photography 1860?1890
.Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg, 2002.
ISBN
3-933 257-22-0
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
(in Japanese)
328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers
/
Nihon shashinka jiten
(
日本??家事典
). Kyoto: Tank?sha, 2000.
ISBN
4-473-01750-8
. Despite the alternative title in English, this book is in Japanese only.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Tucker, A. W.
, et al. (2003).
The history of Japanese photography.
Houston, TX: Yale University Press and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
ISBN
0-300-09925-8
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Bennett, Terry. (2006).
Photography in Japan 1853?1912.
North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle Publishing.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Gordenker, Alice. (2014, March 26). "
Shimooka Renjo, back in focus.
"
Japan Times
. Accessed September 27, 2015.
- ^
a
b
Ozawa, Takesi. (1981). The history of early photography in Japan.
History of Photography
, 5 (4), 285-303.
External links
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