This presentation explores several of the key questions raised by the panel abstract, considering how photomechanically-illustrated books were tied to both national and cross-cultural knowledge transmission and the construction of cultural identities in nineteenth and early twentieth century Japan. It focuses on the illustrated books produced by Ogawa Kazumasa (1860-1929), the most widely recognized photographer of Meiji-era Japan (1868-1912) and a key figure in cross-cultural exchanges between Japan and the West during this period. Ogawa’s press published some 300 photographically-illustrated books, including English, Japanese, and bilingual volumes. These covered a vast range of topics. The English-language volumes introduced various aspects of (mostly traditional) Japanese culture and history to a Western audience largely unfamiliar with the country. Some such topics were also the subject of Japanese-language volumes, but Ogawa simultaneously published books on more contemporary topics with specific interest to the internal domestic market. These often addressed Japan’s emerging self-presentation as a newly modernized and powerful modern country in complex ways, revealing, for example, a nascent sense of Japanese imperialism. Ogawa also used multiple reproductive processes, including collotype and halftone printing. Thus an analysis of his oeuvre allows for a consideration of the materiality of photomechanical books produced using differing techniques, the social uses of these books across cultures, and an examination of how one photographer and printer crafted messages for both domestic and international audiences.
Key words: collotype, halftone, photomechanical printing, Ogawa Kazumasa, Japan
Selected primary sources include:
K. Ogawa, The Hakone District (Tokyo, 1892)
K. Ogawa, Sights and Scenes on the Tōkaidō (Tokyo, 1892)
K. Ogawa, Scenes in Nikko and Vicinity (Tokyo, 1892-93)
K. Ogawa, The Nikko District (Tokyo, 1894)
K. Ogawa, Tokyo fūkei (Tokyo, 1895)
K. Ogawa, Nihon hyakkei, (Tokyo, 1896)
Secondary source:
Karen M. Fraser, “From Print to Photograph, Stage to Page, and East to West: Transmedial Narratives and Cross-cultural Understanding in Ogawa Kazumasa’s Scenes from the Chiushingura and the Story of the Forty-Seven Rōnin," forthcoming, Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, 22:2 (Fall 2023).
Kelly M. McCormick, “Ogawa Kazumasa and the Halftone Photograph: Japanese War Albums at the Turn of the Twentieth Century,” TransAsia Photography 7, no. 2 (Spring 2017).
Bibliography
Selected primary sources include:
K. Ogawa, The Hakone District (Tokyo, 1892)
K. Ogawa, Sights and Scenes on the Tōkaidō (Tokyo, 1892)
K. Ogawa, Scenes in Nikko and Vicinity (Tokyo, 1892-93)
K. Ogawa, The Nikko District (Tokyo, 1894)
K. Ogawa, Tokyo fūkei (Tokyo, 1895)
K. Ogawa, Nihon hyakkei, (Tokyo, 1896)
Secondary source:
Karen M. Fraser, “From Print to Photograph, Stage to Page, and East to West: Transmedial Narratives and Cross-cultural Understanding in Ogawa Kazumasa’s Scenes from the Chiushingura and the Story of the Forty-Seven Rōnin," forthcoming, Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, 22:2 (Fall 2023).
Karen M. Fraser
Associate Professor, Art History & Museum Studies
Department of Art + Architecture
University of San Francisco
https://www.usfca.edu/faculty/karen-fraser
This presentation explores how photomechanically-illustrated books were tied to national and cross-cultural knowledge transmission and the construction of cultural identities in nineteenth and early twentieth century Japan. It focuses on books produced by Ogawa Kazumasa (1860-1929), the most widely recognized photographer of Meiji-era Japan (1868-1912) and a key figure in cross-cultural exchanges between Japan and the West. An analysis of his extensive oeuvre allows for consideration of the materiality of photomechanical books produced using differing techniques, the social uses of these books across cultures, and consideration of how one photographer and printer crafted messages for both domestic and international audiences.