Kenji Morita

Fujita Japanese

1886

Not on view

When Japan opened its ports to the West in the 1850s, photography—called shashin, literally, a copy of truth—soon became widely available. High-end professional salons and open-air studios operated by itinerant practitioners offered portraits at every price range. While the popularity of ambrotypes, a positive photograph on glass, was short-lived in the United States, Japanese ambrotypes were in demand from the early 1870s until the end of the nineteenth century. These two ambrotype portraits depict a dreamy-eyed, fourteen-year-old student and a barefoot geisha with her attendant. Housed in poetry-inscribed kiri-wood boxes, they provide an intimate and rare glimpse of how modern Japanese society represented itself.

Artwork Details

Title: Kenji Morita
Artist: Fujita (Japanese, active 1880s)
Date: 1886
Medium: Ambrotype
Dimensions: Image: 9.6 x 6.8 cm (3 3/4 x 2 11/16 in.)
Case: 1.3 x 11.1 x 8.3 cm (1/2 x 4 3/8 x 3 1/4 in.)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Funds from various donors, 2004
Object Number: 2004.282a, b
Curatorial Department: Photographs

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[Geisha with Attendant], Yokoyama Matsusaburō Japanese, Ambrotype — [Geisha with Attendant]
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La Toilette, Suzuki Shin'ichi Japanese, Albumen silver print from glass negative with applied color — La Toilette
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