[Geisha with Attendant]

1880s

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: [Geisha with Attendant]
Artist: Yokoyama Matsusaburō (Japanese, 1838–1884)
Date: 1880s
Medium: Ambrotype
Dimensions: Image: 10 x 7.6 cm (3 15/16 x 3 in.)
Case: 1.3 x 11.1 x 8.6 cm (1/2 x 4 3/8 x 3 3/8 in.)
Classification: Photographs
Credit Line: Funds from various donors, 2004
Object Number: 2004.283a, b
Curatorial Department: Photographs

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