Old pictures of Japan

[Chaby]

I was watching some videos, and I founded the most amazing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSgAAlE_4oc) video I saw concerning samurais.
Actually, it's a slide show of photographs,but the music in the background,
the last picture,which shows the new police force,also it marks the end of samurais,
the quote on the end of slide show,man...gave me serious goose bumps... :spchless:
If anyone got pictures of feudal Japan,old traditional events,anything related to that time,please share it with us.
Naturally, any comment of the slide show or just interesting facts are welcomed.

[babayaga]

Well, the feudal period mostly predates cameras, but you can lose yourself for hours in the Nagasaki University Library Photo Collection (http://hikoma.lb.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/en/index.html). You just have to understand most of the photos of people are staged and therefore don't necessarily represent authenic activity.

[Damien_lucifer]

thank you for those pics :D great stuff

[kendokamax]

Well, the feudal period mostly predates cameras, but you can lose yourself for hours in the Nagasaki University Library Photo Collection (http://hikoma.lb.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/en/index.html). You just have to understand most of the photos of people are staged and therefore don't necessarily represent authenic activity.


wow so cool!

Some pictures looks like painting...so nice

[kendokamax]

Some pictures looks like painting...so nice

Some color seem unreal. I guess they were painting some of these pictures? Like they used to do for Movies?

It's very interesting..seeing that young people seemed like young people even back then haha

[Goyaman]

Nicely done. The background music BTW, is from the soundtrack to "The Last Samurai".

[babayaga]

wow so cool!

Some pictures looks like painting...so nice

Before the advent of color photography, colored portraits were common. You can usually tell because of the flat tones -- all the reds are *one* red, etc. Just like colorized films. But unlike colorized films, the colorized photos required the touch of an artist.

[kendokamax]

Would they make a appromaxive painting of the scenery to remember the colors?

[Rob W.]

Before the days of digital my father used to colorize photos by hand. He had a big collection of washes and thinners, and would chose colors based on b&w photography experience and what the people who brought in the photos told him. It takes a lot of skill and talent to do well, and it has to be done without mistakes start to finish, there's (virtually) no erasing.

The mix of artistry and nostalgia, the first days of photography and the bizarre world of generations ago, I love it. It has a weird anthropological and morbid fascination, looking at an exact record of a person and culture long since dead, a little moment frozen in time. I like all old pics, but these are exceptional, thanks for posting.

Of samurai, this is one of my favorites. Don't get caught in the eyes. (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Satsuma-samurai-during-boshin-war-period.jpg)

[Martch]

A lot of those photos are in a book I have called Japan: Photographs 1854-1905 by Clark Worswick, published by Pennwick Publishing in 1979. There are many other interesting pictures in it, all B&W or with colour wash. If anyone is interested the ISBN number is 0-394-50836-X

[Adam]

Very nice....This video is almost spiritual.