Kamezo (COMMETHO), A Seaman of the Eiriki-maru
栄力丸船員 亀蔵
- Birth Year
- 1821
- Death Year
- 1902
- Date
- 1850–51
- Technique, Material, Format
- daguerreotype
- Dimension
- 9.0 x 6.8 cm
- Category
- Photograph or Moving Image by Unknown Photographer/Artist
- Inventory Number
- 85-PH-002
In 1850, the cargo ship Eiriki-maru, which had been adrift in the Pacific Ocean for nearly two months, was rescued by the American merchant ship Oakland. The group of 17 survivors were taken to San Francisco where each of them was photographed by a local American photographer. The resulting shots, taken using the world’s first photographic technique, the daguerreotype, are considered the oldest surviving photographs of Japanese people.
Two of those shots are in the collection of the Yokohama Museum of Art, and this is one of them. The image is clear, and even the facial features and subtle expression are clearly visible. The subject, Kamezo, exudes dignity as he gazes at the camera. He was actually still in his mid-twenties at the time, and after overcoming various difficulties managed to return to Japan in 1860.
(MATSUNAGA Shintaro)