Kusakabe Kimbei Attributed (8 results)

No binding. Condition: Good. Yokohama, middle Meiji period (c. 1883-1897). 20x25.3 cm. Attributed to Kusakabe Kimbei (1841-1934). Other prints from the same negative, captioned "43. Pounding Rice", are in the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Syracuse University Art Museum, the Naprstek Museum, Prague (Josef Korensky collection), and the Nagasaki University Library (no. 3022, photographer unidentified). The image depicts four workers in a rice-cleaning shop (tsukigome-ya). Three operate treadle pestles (karausu), stepping on the levers to raise the weighted pestles, which drop into mortars sunk in the floor and strip the bran from the grain, while the fourth sweeps the rice back into the mortar with a straw broom. Unlike many genre scenes of the period, which were staged in the studio with hired models and props, this photograph was evidently taken on location in a working shop: the mortars are sunk into the floor, which is strewn with rice, and the men wear work coats bearing the shop's name on the collars. The poses, however, are still arranged for the camera. Binding & condition: Unmounted. Good: light rubbing, small tear to the lower edge, ownership mark in pencil to the verso. Trimmed, without the negative caption. References: Reproduced: Japan 1900: A Portrait in Colour (Cologne: Taschen, 2024), p. 80, as by Kusakabe Kimbei.…

Tonosawa seen from the vicinity of the present Chitose Bridge. The mountain is Mt. Yusaka with the Haya River flowing through it. Both of these are mentioned in a thirteenth century travelogue, 'Izayoi Nikki'. Kusakabe was the great Japanese commercial photographer of the nineteenth century. There is a direct relationship between the work of Beato, Stillfried and Kusakabe which is the culmination of a cross-cultural view of Japan during the period. It is probable that Kusakabe began as Stillfried's operator, eventually buying his stock when the latter departed from Japan in the mid 1880's. He operated his own firm until 1912, when he disappeared from view. Kusakabe's speciality was his penetrating studio portraits of the Japanese sitter. Hand-coloured albumen print. 26.6 x 20.5cm. Good rich tones with beautiful colour.…

Albumen print. Good tonal range and in good condition. Photographer's number and title in negative. Interesting image of this Japanese garden; Dimensions: 200 x 255mm. (8 x 10 inches).

Albumen print, hand-coloured. Good rich tones and in good condition. Photographer's number and title in negative. A rare image of these two Geisha's. The reflection in the mirror of one of them shows a remarkable artistic talent on the part of the photographer, at a time when such portraits would not have incorporated such a twist; Dimensions: 265 x 210mm. (10.5 x 8 inches).…

Albumen print, hand-coloured. Good tonal range and in good condition. Photographer's number and title in negative; Dimensions: 200 x 265mm. (8 x 10 inches).

Albumen print. Good tonal range and in excellent condition. Fantastic studio shot showing a man, possibly a farmer with his pick-axe, hat and other articles. Photographer's number in negative; Dimensions: 255 x 200mm. (10.5 x 8 inches).

Albumen print. Good tonal range and in good condition. Photographer's number and title in negative. Interesting image of this large bronze statue of Buddha; Dimensions: 200 x 255mm. (8 x 10 inches).

Albumen print, hand-coloured. Good tonal range and in good condition. Photographer's number and title in negative. Very good studio portrait with fine colouring; Dimensions: 205 x 270mm. (8 x 10.5 inches).