OGAWA, Kazumasa.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

A Model Japanese Villa. Later edition, following the first of 1899. The brightly hand-coloured collotypes show the house and gardens of Okuma Shigenobu (1838-1922), the prime minister of Japan in 1898. Okuma was also an advocate of Westernisation and the founder of Waseda University.The illustrations show this traditional Japanese mansion from both the outside and inside, focusing on the living room and the many chrysanthemum gardens on Okuma's premises. The photographer, Ogawa Kazumasa, is well-known as the man who spearheaded the development of photography and photochemical printing in Japan. "While Commodore M. C. Perry opened Japan to the world in 1854, it was the distinguished and influential artist Ogawa, many years later, who put the country on display for all the world to see and appreciate" (Smith, p. 71).This copy is the third edition.

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