Old Japan Images and text courtesy of Terry Bennett (Old Japan - www.old-japan.co.uk - 1015124)
This is an extremely rare portrait coming, as it does, from the studio of Esaki Reiji (1845-1910).In 1871 Esaki opened his first studio in Shiba, Tokyo. Within a few years he became one of the best known photographers in Tokyo. Esaki is credited with being the first Japanese to employ dry-plate technology and became the first to photograph a moving object; the subject was the funeral procession of Iwakura Tomomi in July 1883. This photograph has the Esaki studio name blind-stamped in Chinese characters on the bottom left-hand corner of the image. Photographs by Esaki are exceptionally rare.
