[ENDŌ, EN AND TAYAMA, MUNETO]. 遠藤遠. 田山宗藤尭

世界写真帖. [Sekai Shashinchō].
[Photographs from the World Tour].

東京. [Tokyo]. 警眼社. [Keigansha]. Taisho 7 [ 1918]. Stock ID #174863

Full page colour plate, black and white photographic illustrations, one attractive folding photographic panorama of Venice, 225pp, 22.5 x 30.5 cm, attractive covers with tassle ties. Front free endpaper creased, browning on text leaves but not photographic illustrations throughout,

A beautiful volume of black and white photographs, with one colour plate, of major landmarks of the world, first published in 1910 by Tayama Muneto. This 11th edition dates from 1918. Tayama was a publisher who, in 1910, had taken part in a world tour by a group of around 50 entrepreneurs and others organized by the Asahi Newspaper. His company published this volume to commemorate the tour, and the order of the photos largely follows the itinerary taken by the group - although there is a remarkable fold-out panoramic photo of the city of Venice which must have been taken by a commercial photographer. The photos are accompanied by explanatory text in Japanese and English. The itinerary takes us from Tokyo via Yokohama to Hawaii, which is well illustrated with images of Honolulu, a sugar mill, Waikiki, Mt. Pali etc.

The group then travelled on to San Francisco and Chicago, both illustrated by several pages of photos. There are fine images of the Niagara Falls, and numerous photos of Boston and Washington DC, including photographs taken in the Supreme Court and Congressional Library. A photo of George Washington's obelisk is accompanied by a description which explains that one of the stones in the monument, said to have been brought to the US by Commodore Perry, bears an inscription stating that it came from Idzu in Japan. This is followed by numerous photos of New York, focusing particularly on the city's early skyscrapers.

A large section of the volume is devoted to the travellers' next port of call, the UK, where they visited London, Oxfordshire, Cambridge, Manchester, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, the Scottish Highlands and the Giants' Causeway. The travellers then toured Western Europe, visiting Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Italy - the volume contains several pages of Roman antiquities and Italian architectural landmarks. They then continued via Norway to St. Petersburg and Moscow. The collection includes some fine photos of pre-revolutionary Russia. The final part of the journey was undertaken on the newly constructed Trans-Siberian Railway, via Lake Baikal to Harbin and on to Vladivostok.

This collection offers a fascinating window onto early 20th century Japanese visions of the West.

When referring to this item please quote stockid 174863.

Price: $195.00 AU

other currencies