An album of photographs | Attributed to Usui Shuzaburo (active circa 1869-89) | Meiji period, late 19th century

Property from the Japan Society Library, London

An album of photographs

Attributed to Usui Shuzaburo (active circa 1869-89)

Meiji period, late 19^th century

album of photographs, circa 1885, oblong folio, 100 hand-tinted albumen prints mounted on card, depicting views of Nagasaki, Kyoto, various temples and shrines, and scenes of daily life, the lacquered covers decorated in gold, silver, red and black hiramaki-e, takamaki-e, keuchi and kimpun on a black lacquer ground, with a frog playing a make-shift shamisen formed from a flower and using a leaf-shaped plectrum, surrounded by reveling insects, leaves of wild ginger crest (aoi mon) and chrysanthemum crest (kiku mon) above