A Career of Japan

BRILL PHIA PHOTOGRAPHY 1 IN ASIA A Career of Japan 1 Baron Raimund von Stillfried and Early Yokohama Photography A Career of Japan Luke Gartlan (PhD 2004) is a lecturer at the Photography in Asia is a peer reviewed book series dedicated luke gartlan to original scholarship on the history of photography in Asia, School of Art History, University of St Andrews. ranging from the appearance of the fi rst daguerrotypes in the He is editor of the peer-reviewed international nineteenth century to contemporary photography. quarterly History of Photography, and co-editor, 1. A Career of Japan: Baron Raimund von Stillfried with Ali Behdad, of Photography's Orientalism: and Early Yokohama Photography New Essays on Colonial Representation (Getty A Career of Japan is the fi rst study of one of the major photographers and personalities of Luke Gartlan Research Institute, 2013). His research concerns nineteenth-century Japan. Baron Raimund von Stillfried was the most important foreign- photography and cultural exchange in the born photographer of the Meiji era and one of the fi rst globally active photographers of his nineteenth century, especially with reference to generation. He played a key role in the international image of Japan and the adoption of the camera’s role in colonial-era visual culture, photography within Japanese society itself. Yet, the lack of a thorough study of his activi- histories of travel and exploration, and non- ties, travels, and work has been a fundamental gap in both Japanese- and Western-language Western responses to photography. scholarship. Based on extensive new primary sources and unpublished documents from archives around the world, this book examines Stillfried’s signifi cance as a cultural media- tor between Japan and Central Europe. It highlights the tensions and fi erce competition that underpinned the globalising photographic industry at a site of cultural contact and exchange – treaty-port Yokohama. In the process, it raises key questions for Japanese visual culture, Habsburg studies, and cross-cultural histories of photography and globalisation. “Luke Gartlan’s book is a compelling and enjoyable read, and contributes major new per- spectives to the growing fi eld of Meiji photography. It will certainly be the authoritative work on Raimund von Stillfried, but it is also impressive for its contributions to other important luke gartlan areas of Meiji cultural studies, including representations of the emperor, photography of Hokkaido, and world’s fairs.” Bert Winther-Tamaki (University of California, Irvine) 384 pages, 165 illustrations A Career of Japan ISBN: 978-9004289321 Photography in Asia Baron Raimund von Stillfried and Early Yokohama Photography Managing Editor: Claire Roberts ISSN 2405-7800 brill.com/phia 9 7 8 9 0 0 4 2 8 9 3 2 1 brill luke gartlan PPHIA1_Dustjacket_HT.inddHIA1_Dustjacket_HT.indd 1 002-11-152-11-15 15:4515:45 A Career of Japan Baron Raimund von Stillfried and Early Yokohama Photography by luke gartlan Leiden – Boston 2016 PHIA1_p001_384_HT.indd iii 02-11-15 22:11 Published by these eff orts have not been successful the publisher BRILL welcomes communications from copyright holders, so that Plantijnstraat 2 the appropriate acknowledgments can be made in future 2321 JC Leiden editions, and to settle other permission matters. The Netherlands brill.com/phia Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the Design appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Peter Yeoh, New York Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, Production MA 01923, USA. High Trade BV, Zwolle, The Netherlands Fees are subject to change. Printed in Slovakia ISBN 978-90-04-28932-1 The research and publication of this volume was generously supported by: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Detailed Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data are available on the internet at http://catalog.loc.gov Copyright 2016 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill | Hes & De Graaf, Brill | Nijhoff , Brill | Cover image: Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. Detail of fi g. 117. Baron Raimund von Stillfried, Two Offi cers, ca. 1875. Hand-colored albumen print, 23.8 x 19.1 cm. From All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be Views and Costumes of Japan, Stillfried & Andersen, Yoko- reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or hama, Main Street No. 59, plate 21. Pictures Collection, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne. mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Brill has made all reasonable eff orts to trace all right holders to any copyrighted material used in this work. In cases where PHIA1_p001_384_HT.indd iv 02-11-15 22:11 Contents Acknowledgments x Note for the Reader xi introduction: with argus eyes 1 The Death of a Photographer 3 Objectives and Parameters 5 Chapter Outline 7 1 from dreams to specters 11 On the Frontiers of Empire 12 Maritime and Artistic Education 14 Military Service and Travels 18 Serving Emperor Maximilian in Mexico 19 The Legacy of Querétaro 24 Empire Lost 27 2 changing views 31 First Visit to Japan, 1864–65 35 Serving Empire In Absentia 38 Felice Beato: Mentor and Model? 42 First Portfolios 49 An Expatriate Market 59 The Coming of the Globetrotter 63 3 “the mikado photograph affair” 73 Touring Yokosuka Arsenal 76 Photographing the Emperor 83 Censoring the Foreigner 89 The Imperial Commissions 94 Circulation and Display 99 4 picturing hokkaido 105 Terms and Duties 107 The Hokkaido Commission 112 Views of Hokkaido 116 The Ainu as Subject 126 Reprographic Afterlives 134 vii PHIA1_p001_384_HT.indd vii 02-11-15 22:11 5 sex and violence in the teahouse 143 Preparations 145 At the Vienna World Exposition 149 A Teahouse for Vienna 152 Blood Statement 160 6 a merchant of images 167 Austro-Hungarian Globetrotters 168 The Rise of the Japan Photographic Association 182 Toward a Global Enterprise 191 7 constructing and contesting japan 199 Four Photographic Albums 202 Colored Costumes 206 Masters and Apprentices 220 8 the trials of stillfried 235 Hermann Andersen and “Stillfried and Andersen” 237 Professor Stillfried: An Expert Witness and Instructor 249 The Consular Courts and the Arrival of Franz von Stillfried 256 A New Series, Painted and Unpainted 261 Stillfried and the Return to Paints 273 Conclusion: Visual Histories and Volatile Markets 281 afterword: a prodigal subject 283 The Presentation of Self 284 Exhibiting Asia in Vienna 286 Rethinking the Travel Photographer 287 viii PHIA1_p001_384_HT.indd viii 02-11-15 22:11 Appendix A 290 Baron Heinrich von Calice, Jedo [Tokyo], to Count Friedrich von Beust, Vienna. Bericht über eine Beschwerde gegen Baron Stillfried wegen Aufnahme und Verkauf einer Photographie des Mikado und daraus entstandene Unzukömmlichkeiten (Report on a Complaint against Baron Stillfried due to the Taking and Marketing of a Photograph of the Mikado and Any Resulting Inconveniences), 20 January 1872. Appendix B 292 [Watanabe Hiromoto], Transcription of an Interview with the Carpenter Genkichi, November– December 1873, Vienna. Appendix C 295 A Brief Timeline of Raimund von Stillfried’s Studios, Associates, and Competitors. Appendix D 301 Indenture of Sale of Photographic Goods from Raimund von Stillfried to Franz von Stillfried, United States Consulate in Yokohama, 6 December 1879. Glossary of Japanese Terms 304 Notes 306 Selected Bibliography 349 Index 360 ix PHIA1_p001_384_HT.indd ix 02-11-15 22:11 1 Baron Raimund von Stillfried, Self-Portrait in Yoko- hama Studio, ca. 1875. Albumen print, 23.6 x 30 cm. Stillfried Family Collection, Vienna. PHIA1_p001_384_HT.indd xii 03-11-15 15:04 Introduction With Argus Eyes t some stage in the mid-1870s, the Aus- the seated photographer and the representation it- tro-Hungarian photographer Baron Rai- self. While Stillfried occupies the site at the center Amund von Stillfried-Ratenicz arranged his of the composition, the apparent master of his do- easel, props, cameras, and equipment in his Yoko- main, the arrangement of the cameras and adjacent hama studio in preparation for a self-portrait (fi g. self-portrait suggests the intersection of various 1). With his Japanese assistant at his feet, he placed mechanical, representational, and personal gazes. himself at the center of the composition, dressed in It is hardly coincidental that the seated artist and the neat attire appropriate to his social background, the camera directly behind him are aligned in the and arranged for another assistant to record the same direction. Intersecting with these parallel scene. While the surrounding equipment provides glances, the mammoth-plate camera on the left and ample evidence of his photographic profession, the mounted self-portrait face in the opposite di- Stillfried depicts himself in the guise of a studio rection. Through the painted self-portrait and those painter, with a fi ne brush in his right hand and a mechanical bystanders, Stillfried’s mastery fi nds maulstick and palette in his left, poised at a moment expression in the proliferation of his own gaze and between working on the self-portrait before him. its proxies over the studio space. In this sense, this Like many nineteenth-century photographers, he photograph does not merely declare the artistic sta- adopts the traditional iconography of the painter in tus of the new medium; it proclaims the visual au- his studio to claim the credentials of an artist. thority of the photographer over the physical world. In contrast to the elegant photographs of Japa- In the nineteenth-century colonizing world, the nese subjects that had established his reputation, commercial travel photographer represented the the cluttered, seemingly random arrangement of modern profession of observation and supervision objects in this self-portrait suggests the behind-the- par excellence. To adopt Stillfried’s own resonant scenes mayhem of a successful studio.

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