Photograph or Moving Image by ForeignPhotographer/Artist
Inventory Number
84-PHF-014
Eliphalet Brown Jr. was a photographer who traveled to Japan with Commodore Matthew Perry on the famed Black Ships at the end of the Edo Period (1603-1868).
This is a picture of one of the central figures of the Matsumae domain, Endo Matazaemon, and two of his retainers, taken when Perry left Yokohama for Hakodate in 1854. It was made using the daguerreotype process, a photographic technique in which each shot produces a one-of-a-kind image, unlike later techniques that allowed multiple prints to be made. Moreover, daguerreotypes deteriorate when exposed to light, so extant examples like this are rare. Another characteristic of the technique is that left and right are reversed, like in a mirror, so Endo must have tucked in his kimono collar in reverse and also inserted his sword on his right side, so that the resulting image would show them both correctly. Compared to his two retainers, who didn’t prepare in the same way, Endo's high aspirations as a samurai are conveyed clearly in the image.
(YATSUYANAGI Sae)
Eliphalet Brown Jr. was a photographer who traveled to Japan with Commodore Matthew Perry on the famed Black Ships at the end of the Edo Period (1603-1868).
This is a picture of one of the central figures of the Matsumae domain, Endo Matazaemon, and two of his retainers, taken when Perry left Yokohama for Hakodate in 1854. It was made using the daguerreotype process, a photographic technique in which each shot produces a one-of-a-kind image, unlike later techniques that allowed multiple prints to be made. Moreover, daguerreotypes deteriorate when exposed to light, so extant examples like this are rare. Another characteristic of the technique is that left and right are reversed, like in a mirror, so Endo must have tucked in his kimono collar in reverse and also inserted his sword on his right side, so that the resulting image would show them both correctly. Compared to his two retainers, who didn’t prepare in the same way, Endo's high aspirations as a samurai are conveyed clearly in the image.
(YATSUYANAGI Sae)