TAJIMA KOBE [1899]. A Mounted Photograph.

Yokohama [1899], Farsari Co. A sepia tone photograph mounted on a A. Fasari & Co. card, verso penned name: "Kobe Tajima 1899," card: 11.4 x 16.7 cm., photo: 9.8 x 13.9 cm., a bit of minor fading, else a sharp, clear, strong image,flawless. . *** **** *** . . A LATE 19TH CENTURY PORTRAIT OF A JAPANESE MAN . . . PHOTOGRAPHED AT THE FAMOUS ALDOLFO FARSARI STUDIO, . . . YOKOHAMA, JAPAN . . * THE FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPHER: ALDOLFO FARSARI [1841-1898]: . Farsari was an Italian photographer based in Yokohama, Japan. His studio, the last notable foreign-owned in Japan. He was one of the country's largest and most prolific commercial photographic firms. . Largely due to Farsari's exacting technical standards and his entrepreneurial abilities it had a significant influence on the development of photography in Japan. . Following a brief military career, including service in the American Civil War, he became a successful entrepreneur and commercial photographer. His photographic work was highly regarded, particularly his hand-coloured portraits and landscapes, which he sold mostly to foreign residents and visitors to the country. . Farsari's images were widely distributed, presented or mentioned in books and periodicals, and sometimes recreated by artists in other media; they shaped foreign perceptions of the people and places of Japan and to some degree affected how Japanese saw themselves and their country. . *** PORTRAIT OF A JAPANESE MAN IN TRADITIONAL HAORI & KIMONO: . This fine example shows a wealthy Japanese merchant in formal Kimono and Haori with the Tachibana Mon [crest of wild orange] on each breast. He poses in a relaxed manor for the camera. He sports a moustache and very short trim hair in a very masculine look. . The photo is studio mounted on a stiff card reading: "A. Farsari & Co. Yokohama Japan." . The verso is ink penned named: "KOBE TAMIJA." "Tajima" is the surname, Kobe is the given name. The penned name was written by a person with fluent knowledge of the alphabet and most likely written by a foreigner, rather than a Japanese. . *** Color photos are posted to our website. . *** REFERENCES: . ART & ARTIFICE: Japanese Photographs of the Meiji Era: Selections from the Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. With essays by Sebastian Dobson, Anne Nishimura Morse, and Frederic A. Sharf. * Banta, Melissa. et al: LIFE OF A PHOTOGRAPH: Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Japan from the Peabody Museum and Wellesley College Museum". * Banta, Melissa, and Susan Taylor, eds. A TIMELY ENCOUNTER: Nineteenth-Century Photographs of Japan. * Bennett, Terry. EARLY JAPANESE IMAGES. * Dobson, Sebastian. "Yokohama Shashin". In Art and Artifice. * Handy, Ellen. "Tradition, Novelty, and Invention: Portrait and Landscape Photography in Japan, 1860s-1880s". * Morse, Anne Nishimura. "Souvenirs of 'Old Japan': Meiji-Era Photography and the Meisho Tradition." * en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolfo_Farsari . .