Two volumes of Ogawa’s portraits of beautiful women, including geisha. Ogawa Isshin (1860-1929) was an early pioneer of photography and photographic printing in Meiji Japan. He set up and printing and publishing house, Ogawa Shahin Seihan-jo, disseminating popular books of studio photography and was one of the founding members of Nihon Shashin-kai (Japan Photographic Society). It is extremely rare to find original albumen prints by Ogawa, presented in such albums.
Vol. 1 has the following English ms. note: “Hundred beauties (singing girls) in Tokyo exhibited at Ryounkaku in Asakusa park in which five were omitted because their negatives were broken. 95 sheets price Yen 23.75, colored Yen 33.25 Ogawa Isshin. There is none of these photographs in Tokai.” The Tokai region would seem to refer to the area between Tokyo and Kyoto, i.e. the cultural centre of Japan.
When the famous Ryounkaku tower (designed by W. K. Burton) was opened in November 1890, its big attraction were two public elevators serving eight of the twelve floors. However, due to frequent malfunction the elevators were closed down after only six months in operation. Persuading customers to walk up the stairs became difficult until somebody came up with the idea of holding ‘Hyakubijin’ exhibitions on the ninth floor. The Yomiuri Shimbun announced on July 7, 1891: “Photographer Ogawa Kazuma was recently asked by Asakusa Park’s Ryounkaku to take portraits of geisha. Since different locations would naturally result in different photographs, he took great care to ensure that all 100 geisha were photographed in the same way. He built a particular new room [in his studio], and photographed everything in a large format, including a round window and bonsai decorations.”
Most portraits include a fan with the characters for ‘Ryounkaku’ written in elegant calligraphy. The event organisers invited viewers to cast votes for their favourite beauties. The top five geisha received gold watches, rings, diamond necklaces and obi sashes. The exhibition turned out to be a huge success. The present group of Ogawa’s ‘Hyakubijin’ was shown at the third exhibition in 1894. On this occasion the first prize went to Tamagiku of Shimbashi, followed by Momotaro, Kotoyo, Azuma, and Kotsuru.
The little red label advises customers on how to clean the photograph’s surface using water.
