Are These The Oldest Photos Of Japan?

by

I’ve seen some old pictures of Japan… but these are really old. We’re talking like 1860-1861 here. I didn’t know cameras existed at this time (though apparently the first exposure ever was taken in 1827, around 30 years before these pictures were taken). Pictures taken at this time were probably using the daguerreotype method, which, according to Wikipedia, involved coating a copper plate in silver, then treating it with iodine to make it sensitive to light (then you’d have to develop it with mercury vapor and fix it with some strong salt). Either way, it doesn’t sound easy. Also, getting into Japan in 1860 wasn’t all that easy either. The Shogun didn’t like foreigners walking around all that much…

The Eulenburg Expedition

Friedrich Albrecht zu Eulenburg (I hope this guy had a nickname) was born in 1815, and started his international relations career as a Prussian Counsul-General in Antwerp. In 1859, he was chosen to go to Japan, China, and Siam to negotiate trade agreements. Of course, we’ll be looking at the Japanese one.

The weird thing about him, apparently, was that he brought along a camera (not too many cameras going around these days), and apparently, he took some of the first (if not the first) pictures of Japan. He brought with him “impressive” and “up-to-date” photographic equipment (not digital cameras, for those of you born after 2000), three photographers (Carl Wilhelm Heine Bismarck, John Wilson and August Sachtler), and two artists (who painted and drew artsy fartsy stuff, I imagine).

Either way, it’s pretty awesome of him to have brought all those photographers. Sadly, not too many of the photographs exist today (or they just weren’t well preserved). Still, there are a few of them.

The First Photos Of Japan

Eulenburg’s photos were mostly of Tokyo (Edo) and the surrounding areas. It was tough for him to take pictures of things (because, of course, the Japanese didn’t like them all that much and were very suspicious of espionage), but they were at least able to take some pictures of people and other “random” things. Apparently, they weren’t allowed to take a picture of the city because they were afraid they’d take pictures of the Shogun in the castle. Obviously the Japanese didn’t know how low of a resolution their cameras were, which is probably why the Japanese overcompensated by making so many camera companies later on (still can’t take pictures of the Shogun, sadly).

In order to do this, they had to carry their equipment around which required four porters (so you stop complaining about how heavy your DSLR is), some Japanese officials (so they don’t get in trouble), and local police officers (to keep crowds and people away). It wasn’t all that safe, either. One of his interpretors was killed by shishi (anti-foreigner, anti-shogun, pro-emperor group) in a raid while they were walking around (that would have been a cool photo if it didn’t take forever to set everything up).

Update: HOLY CRAP. The first three pictures are in 3D! I was wondering why there were two pictures. This guy was like the Michael Bay of old Japanese photographs. As Sally Ward in the comments explains, “Just sit back and gaze through them until the images merge.” And you thought the whole 3D movie thing was new…

Picture Notes: “Priests of the fuoko temple in Oghee”

Picture Notes: “Travelling Japanese in Tagu”

Picture Notes: “Farmers from Omono”

I really like the (following) square shaped pictures by Bismark. Although some of them have people, they seem to be more focused on buildings and architecture, which is pretty cool.

Picture Notes: “Japanese Fountain”

Picture Notes: “Prayer column from Icegami”

Picture Notes: “Ozi”

“Temple from Fucegami”

Update: Thank you to Kirsten Winkler and Ingrid for the translations of the notes jotted on the pictures. Note that they do their romaji pretty weird, which is why you should never bother with romaji and learn hiragana instead.

What I want to know is where are all the school girls doing weird peace signs everywhere? Just doesn’t seem like a Japanese picture without them. Also curious how many of these places are still around and visitable.

While taking these pictures, Eulenburg negotiated a “Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation” in 1861, pretty much putting them on par with the other Western powers in terms of agreements with Japan. I don’t think Japan was all too happy with these agreements, but we had all the big cameras cannons.

Want to know more about these pictures (and are able to read German?) Here’s the original article. Even better than this, you can learn how to turn your photos into Meiji Era photos (a little later than this, but only by around 40-50 years).

  • Max

    I can read it but it’s hard. If no one else volunteers let me know (write me an email) and I’ll translate for you, but I’m not sooo interested in it, that I wouldn’t somebody else have the honor :)

  • http://twitter.com/Samufugu Samufugu

    These pictures make me want to visit the 1800′s Japan even more. It makes me wonder what they were thinking if it was their first time seeing a camera. Nice find.

  • Pingback: Tweets that mention The Oldest Photos Of Japan -- Topsy.com

  • http://kirstenwinkler.com KirstenWinkler

    Awesome stuff! Here are the translations:

    1. Priester des Fuokotempels in Oghee – priests of the fuoko temple in Oghee
    2. Japanischer Reisender in Tagu – travelling Japanese in Tagu
    3. Landleute aus Omono – farmers from Omono
    4. Japanischer Brunnen – japanese fountain
    5. Betsäule aus Icegami – prayer column from Icegami
    6. Ozi
    7. Tempel aus Fucegami – temple from Fucegami

    Don’t know if I got the names of the cities right, though.

  • Pmcrotea

    first pic says “preists of the _______ oghee”, so ya you’re right. I’ll check the other ones next.

  • Pmcrotea

    Oh, Kristen got there first.

    I confirm her analysis. My german is ok, but I can’t get cursive!!.

  • http://chochajin.livejournal.com/ chochajin

    One interesting thing that is mentioned in the German article is that Mr. Heine wanted to take a good overview photo of Edo, so he climbed up a mountain, but the Yakunin started arguing with him, because they thought he can spy as he’s taking photos from above and thus can look inside the Shogun’s castle.

  • http://twitter.com/21tigermike Michael A. Robson

    Beautiful and Haunting.

  • Ojisancpw

    In ’59 the shogun was 13 years old and sickly. His mother wouldn’t let him out of the house. His name was Tokugawa Iemochi. Iemochi died at 20 and Tokugawa Yoshinobu took his place as shogun. Yoshinobu liked having his picture taken. He also enjoyed riding bicycles. He stepped down from his position as shogun in 1868.

  • Geoffrey Matt

    It’s interesting that the first three pictures look like they’re supposed to be viewed in 3D with a gizmo which forces each eye to only see one side of the image. Given the current obsession with 3D technology it doesn’t look like the tech’s moved on that much!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Sally-Ward/100000893745970 Sally Ward

    The 3D images are amazing. Fortunately you don’t need any new-fangled technology to view them. Just sit back and gaze through them until the images merge. The sense of depth in the 3rd one (Sweeping away) is stunning, you could almost reach in and nick the guy’s broom.
    Are there more of these?

  • Jonadab the Unsightly One

    Oh, cameras have been around much longer than that — at least since classical antiquity.

    However, to take photographs that stick around you also have to have film, which is somewhat trickier to make than a camera. The history of photography isn’t mostly about the camera: it’s largely about film and the development process.

    Photos taken in the mid-nineteenth century are generally — well, let’s just say I’m pretty sure somebody has done some significant work on these with a photo editor to get them in such good shape, because they didn’t have modern film back then. They had chemicals that could be spread on a solid surface (typically glass) to make an exposure plate, and to get any kind of viewable image you had to use insanely long shutter times (like, several _minutes_). Also, the materials needed (particularly the chemicals) were somewhat expensive, much more expensive than film today, and you pretty much had to be a chemist to be a photographer.

    There are also photographs in existence from the US Civil War, which was around the same time as these photographs or a little earlier.

    Of course, photography didn’t become something normal people could easily fool around with until Eastman introduced its developing service ($1 per batch for anyone who had purchased one of their Kodak cameras) in 1888.

  • http://www.tofugu.com koichi

    Thanks so much! updates and cited, thank you!

  • Dynamene

    The first four photos are stereoscopic! https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Stereoscopic They look pretty amazing in 3D. With a bit of practice you can see them in 3D without glasses.

  • http://twitter.com/VXLbeast VXLbeast

    Dang…just dang.

  • Jerry

    Wait, I’m by no means a German expert but isn’t “Japanischer brunnen” Dutch: ‘Japanse bron’ English: ‘Japanese well’ ? And thus not fountain? Even the picture itself portraits a well, and not a fountain :O

  • Mesqueeb

    I live in Antwerp!! xD
    Yarrrr!

    -Mesqueeb

  • murt

    um, wow. that’s awesome. just awesome. old pictures of japan–and 3d. no glasses, no parallax screen thingamajigs–just awesome.

  • Lagolden

    These are just great! The only other photographer I know of is Felice Beato but his photos look a bit younger.

  • Anonymous

    I think they are very old but good pictures.

    http://www.downloadsoftwarefor.com

  • keri

    This is so incredible! Thanks!!!

  • haihei

    Dear customers, thank you for your support of our company.
    Here, there’s good news to tell you: The company recently
    launched a number of new fashion items! ! Fashionable
    and welcome everyone to come buy. If necessary,
    welcome to :===== www. soozone.com========
    T-shirts (Polo ,ed hardy,lacoste) $14
    New era cap $10

    Air jordan(1-24)shoes $30

    Handbags(Coach,ed hardy,lv,d&g) $35

    Jean(True Religion,ed hardy,coogi) $35

    Sunglasses(Oakey,coach,gucci,Armaini)$14

    Bikini (Ed hardy,polo) $18

  • Bailey

    These are really cool!

    My grandmother actually had a daguerreotype viewer for these kinds of photos. It looked kind of like fancy binoculars on a stick. You clipped the two part photo to the front and looked inside. There were two lenses and possibly a mirror or something…I don’t remember. I was about 7 when she showed it to me. Anyway it merged the photos together and you saw them in 3-D that way.

  • Anonymous

    @twitter-151204993:disqus I think these photos are pretty neat. To be honest all i could think was, “Now I get why the Japanese are so clean” (maybe tis my American mind talking?) I will say that if i eve find myself in a time machine it better not send me anywhere near that time in Japan. Talk about I’ll need spiritual cleanings all day so I stay healthy and vibrant like a 2011 Jpanese School girl ^_^v

  • Pingback: Buy Facebook Fans