Historical Collection: Speaking to the Future Series - Historic Photographs: Portraits

This fourth exhibition of the Historic Photographs series focuses on people in photography, featuring photographs of the Edo shogunate's delegation to Europe, along with portraits of political figures of the Meiji period.

The past three exhibitions in this series have looked at the history of photography in Japan from its introduction at the end of the Edo period (end of the 19th century) as a modern technology. The importance of photography as an effective means of documentation was recognized from its earliest years in Japan.

In this exhibition, we feature people as subjects of photography. The portrait genre was a major factor in the rapid popularization of photography in Japan. This was because photographs were affordable and accessible compared to portrait paintings, production of which was limited to the wealthy classes. The apparent demand of photographs among the wider public at that time is also an interesting aspect of the early history of Japanese photography.

The people introduced here held important positions in Japanese history, politically or otherwise, and their circumstances were different from ordinary people. Nonetheless, their hopes of leaving behind their images and accomplishments for later generations must have been common to all people, as we can see today in their gaze through the lens.