T-Enami.org     

    IMAGES OF LOTUS LAND: THE LIFE                 and CAMERA WORK OF

*  T. ENAMI  *

 JAPAN'S ENIGMATIC PHOTOGRAPHER

      Of the MEIJI and TAISHO ERAS

                       King of the Stereoview, Master of the Lantern-Slide                                                            And Prolific, Anonymous Contributor                                                                    To the World of Yokohama Album Views

           

                    Ca 1908-12 Formal portrait of Japanese Photographer                                             T. Enami (1859-1929).  Chinese characters read from                                               right to left : Enami Nobukuni.  So, why not N. Enami?                                              Read the story for the answer to this and more.

In her Introduction to THE HISTORY OF JAPANESE PHOTOGRAPHY (Yale University Press, 2003), Anne Tucker begins with the words "What we know about the history of photography is less than what remains to be discovered...", and ends her many pages of valuable comments with, "...The questions yet to be answered are endless". Those two observations are very true, and offer an acceptable explanation of why Enami's name (along with many other early Japanese photographers) appear nowhere between the covers of her excellent book.

During the few short years since the above reference was published, Enami has become one of those whose mysterious name has been cleared of the fog that once surrounded him, and his place now well-defined in the mainstream of early Japanese photographic history.

In the past, he was simply one of well over a thousand studio and photographer imprints from the Bakumatsu and Meiji eras for whom there was little or no known history.

After WW2, Japanese photo researchers published a short, four-line mention of him without any biographical data. This was followed in 1991 by a short "Yokohama Photographers" appendix in another Japanese book, where photo historian Takio Saito listed several old business directories wherein Enami's name and studio address were found.

However, there was still no biographical data, and in both of the above books, no examples of his work were shown. An investigation revealed that -- even as late as 2006 -- the Yokohama Archives of History that published the data was not familiar with his work, and their vast collection of photographs had no identified Enami images.

Meanwhile, in the West, small nuggets of information were occasionally found for him. He was first mentioned by photo-historian Clark Worswick in 1979, and in 1988, Frances Fralin of the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC made an honorable attempt at a one paragraph biography to accompany certain of his images found in the archives of the National Geographic Society.

Beyond that, certain confusing aspects of Enami's name, and a dearth of critical data became a wall preventing further investigation. Strangely, a great divide existed between those who held collections of his imprinted images, and those who held only documents and dates. Unfortunately, these two sides never seemed to meet. 

In both East and West, Enami remained an Enigma. 

Finally, in 2006, thanks to Enami's own descendants, several breakthroughs occurred. Revelations supplied by his kin acted as a catalyst that almost immediately allowed the scattered data and images to coalesce into a meaningful whole. Individual efforts by collectors and historians were suddenly harmonized, while old "sticky questions" were provided with answers.

The 2009 discovery of Enami's Meiji-era albumen print and lantern-slide catalog served to remove speculation surrounding a large number of images that shared certain number and title styles with other photographers. On the other hand, the same catalog revealed that a few images not thought to be a part of his personal portfolio --- including what appear to be "public domain" and possibly purchased images --- were, in fact, sold by his studio.

Since this emergence from the general fog that once obscured him, Enami has shown himself to be full of surprises. Along with the "sudden" identification of a large body of his images, we are finally allowed to see him and his work in the context of his more famous contemporaries -- many turning out to be his friends, with whom he shared his labors.

In effect, this recent establishment of Enami as a major player in the world of early Japanese photography is part of the ongoing "discovery" that Anne Tucker alluded to.

This website is intended as a friendly tribute to Enami; giving an informal, yet information-filled look at his life and images. It also adds illustrated balance and further data to the Enami essay and biography found in Terry Bennett's info-packed OLD JAPANESE PHOTOGRAPHS: COLLECTORS'DATA GUIDE (London. Quaritch, 2006), and finally clears the air of the interesting speculations mused upon in Bennett's even more colorful sister publication, PHOTOGRAPHY IN JAPAN: 1853-1912 (Tuttle, 2006).

The Webmaster highly recommends all of the above books for a wealth of amazing, illustrated stories from the world of early Japanese photography.                         

               ABOVE :  Love at First Sight in the Fields of Old Japan. Ca.1915-22 silver print.

                    BELOW : Four ca.1892-1899 studio and scenic studies. More discussion about                  the Umbrella Girl image is found on page two.

         ABOVE :  Four Lantern-Slide images from Enami's 1892-1905 mid-to-late Meiji period.

                                         Enami's business card ca.1900-05

Please note that this Website is not a formal, scholarly presentation of the information currently known about Enami. A book about Enami and his Meiji-era photographic world is currently being written that will include all of the sources, footnotes, and comprehensive bibliography that forms the basis for the on-line "snapshot" of his life provided here . The purpose of this site is to provide an immediate free source of general information about the life, times, and camera work of one of old Japan's most productive photographers, and sample images to illustrate a fraction of his portfolio.

Although giving several scattered links and written leads to help you find other information on your own, if I make an unsubstantiated statement that causes you to lose sleep, please contact me, and I will tell you where the particular primary information was found. 

RIGHT :  The Sanjo Bridge over the Kamo River in old Kyoto. Notice the people under the shade of the bridge, enjoying food and drink while sitting on low platforms built only inches above the cool running waters.                      

BELOW : Whereas most 19th Century photographers who took similar shots would pack up and leave at this point, Enami was one of only a few who actually climbed down under the bridge to record the goings-on close up. And he was the only photographer known to have done it in 3-D.

Such under-the-bridge dining is prohibited in present-day Japan.

  The above is an un-transposed 3-D proof print. It can free-viewed using the "cross-eyed method".

ENAMI'S GRANDSON, KEISUKE

Although I have been collecting and enjoying the photographs taken by T. Enami for many years, and had at one time built up a mountain of theory and speculation about the man, it was not until meeting Enami's grandson, Keisuke, in the fall of 2006, that many things became clear.

                      Keisuke provided the key biographical details about his grandfather, clearing up some of the main mysteries surrounding the ENAMI name, and what actually happened to the Yokohama studio on Benten Street.

Keisuke's contributions toward a better understanding of Enami and his times appear in Bennett's DATA GUIDE which was already mentioned in the above introduction, as well as in comments scattered throughout this site.

Keisuke succumbed to illness, passing away at age 75 on October 25th, 2008.

He is survived by his wife Ryoko (a talented calligrapher), and two sons. His daughter-in-law, Chiemi, is a musician and teacher in Yokohama.

               Here is a 2006 image of Keisuke Enami                     and his Wife posted on Flickr

Two Boys Plowing a Field on the Plains of Mt. Fuji.  By T. Enami, ca.1910-20.  From a Lantern slide.

                       The Tea Pickers.    Ca.1898-1900 Vignette from a hand-colored stereoview.

Those interested in Enami's biography, acquaintances, photographic accomplishments, and more examples of his photography may go right to the heavily illustrated  MAIN STORY + PHOTO HISTORY PAGE

                        HERE.

Those wanting just a quick, one-page, no-frills account of T. Enami can go directly to Philbert Ono's PHOTOGUIDE JAPAN  entry HERE,

.....or the WIKIPEDIA entry HERE.  Although I wrote the Wikipedia entry on Enami, I would like to thank their editors for kindly formatting it to fit their Website.

                       A Horse Wearing Sandals, and One Gal Good to Go.      Ca.1892-95

                     PHOTOS ONLY, PLEASE !!!

For those only wanting (or needing) to look at a huge archive of his old photos (over 700 !), the "Mother Lode" of Enami images posted on the Web is now found HERE. 

                 Ca.1892-96 early studio view of an itinerant pipe seller and repairman.

Below, you will find an odd assortment of random information about things on this site, as well as many more SAMPLE PHOTOGRAPHS all by T. Enami. The MAIN STORY & PHOTOGRAPHIC HISTORY PAGE (at the "Services" button on the side bar near the top of this page) has even more photos to scroll through and enjoy.

         
         ABOVE:  Ca.1895-98. Shell Pickers on Honmoku Flats, two miles south of Yokohama.

         BELOW: Variant of above Enami image published ca.1904-05 by George Rose of Australia

    Looking at Stereoviews and an Album of Photos in T. Enami's Yokohama Studio.                          Ca.1898 image printed ca.1906-10 as a three-color litho. From the best-selling 1905-10 Sears,        Roebuck & Company issue of their 100-view JAPAN Set --- all of which were photographed by            T. Enami. Sears obtained the 3-D images in a round-about way from T.W. Ingersoll, who was          already publishing them as real-photo views. Sears first run of the set was in 1905, and had          white borders. From 1906, they added the colored borders seen above, as well as fully-                 printed descriptions on the back.

      Two Geisha and a Maiko in the Middle --- can't get enough of those T. ENAMI STEREOVIEWS !!!         Ca.1898 hand-colored photograph taken in Enami's studio on Benten Street in Yokohama.

February 1st,  2010

Dear Visitor,

         On this page and the MAIN STORY page, you will find over 200 random, sample images from T. Enami's 2-D and 3-D portfolios --- the visual equivalent of what you would get in four (!) nice Souvenir Photo Albums from the late Meiji era. On top of that, I have thrown in a few old graphic pieces as well.

As already mentioned, well over 700 images photographed and published by T. Enami have been posted on the flickr.com site HERE.  Anybody can visit the flickr site and see this large sampling of his photos, including many hundreds not seen here. Most are available for inspection at larger sizes, and are CREATIVE COMMONS licensed for bloggers, webmasters, and creative types who like extracting portions of the images for making cards and collages.

But first, quickly scroll these pages to get a good idea of Enami's various styles. If you like what you see, and think you need or want to use something for your blog, Website, creative artwork, or even a School Project, you can jump right to the flickr link above, and search out plenty of great Enami photos for possible downloading and use. There are also lots of other old photos of Japan by photographers other than Enami --- much of it quite beautiful, and all free for your project or illustration needs.

Again, the photos are free to use. Permission is already granted to either grab them from this site, or to download them from flickr.com 

For those images pulled from Flickr, their guidelines ask that you make the photos linkable back to flickr. These copy/paste URLs are at the ALL SIZES button over the photos.

Although the original, pre-1923 T. Enami images used to make the posted scans are now WELL OUT OF COPYRIGHT, and in the PUBLIC DOMAIN, still, I thank you in advance for the civilized courtesy of providing a resource credit line somewhere, so others know where the pictures can be found for their own use or further study.

 Also, with some over-lap, over 30 more Enami images may be seen at :

(1) the T. Enami "Light Box" section of Alan Griffiths Luminous-Lint website HERE (click on photo to read expanded captions). 

(2) Robert Cornely's display of 36 images lantern-slide images HERE,

     and

(3) The Presbyterian Archives of New Zealand display of 14 images [culled from over 80 Enami photo in their collection] seen HERE.

All told (on flickr.com and elsewhere) that's well over 750 verified T. Enami views (and a few studio imprints) to keep things covered for a while. Other collections are listed at the Flickr link already given further above, including an important link to see the 50-view lantern-slide collection at Nagasaki University.

For those bothered or concerned about the "disorganized" nature of this site, I have few words addressing that situation just under the large GEISHA IN A FLOWER GARDEN photo just a few images below.

                   BELOW : The UCHWA Fan Makers in 1890s Japan. More Uchiwa HERE.

                         YOU CAN NOW...

 Go to the MAIN STORY PAGE HERE , or continue looking at more nice photos by T. Enami and other Website background information below.
 

        Gone Fishin' Under Fuji. An albumen study in soft pastels       Ca.1892-95 Albumen Print

                      Ca.1904. Japanese Naval Ship in Yokohama Harbor waiting for the                                  Emperor Meiji to come aboard. A scene during the Russo-Japan War.

                                  The Clam Digger.         Ca.1915-22 Gelatin Silver Print

        THE DUST BUSTER. A 1920s Water Wagon Works to Keep the Dirt Down and The Air Clean.

                             Ca.1898-1907. Beach Boys Catching the Spray from Breaking Surf. Vignette from a half-stereoview

        
                                        Ca.1898.  Five Geisha and a Cat.

                                            Ca.1892-95.   The Hot Tea Vendor

    

  Ca. 1892-95.  The Daiya River in Rural Japan.  Hand-tinted Enami Lantern-Slide + Variant Print

    Enami published the above slide with the circular matte just as you see it. The variant           albumen print [Enami Catalog No.150] is seen with more discussion HERE.

             REFRESHING AND SURPRISING 

          For those already familiar with the work of early Japanese Photographers such as Shimooka, Kimbei, K. Ogawa, Esaki, Suzuki, Tamamura (and many others covered by Japanese Photo-Histories published in the West), the material presented on this site should prove a bit refreshing, and sometimes surprising. It is a small tribute to one whose activities and portfolio occasionally transcended the work of his more famous contemporaries mentioned above, leaving collectors and connoisseurs of the Japanese image with a wide range of new material to discover and enjoy.

                   Two Geisha and friends in the Horikiri Iris Garden of Tokyo. A three-color halftone                        rendition of a hand-colored, full half stereoview. Printed and Published in England                   in 1922 as one of eight full page color plates illustrating the JAPAN entry fo J.A.                  Hammerton's encyclopedic PEOPLE  OF ALL NATIONS. All plates were chosen                         from T. Enami's ca.1898-1907 series of real-photo stereoviews. This was a popular                        seller in all countries of the British Empire, giving Enami's photographs worldwide                         exposure in huge numbers. The catch ? They were all mistakenly credited to the                            Reverend Walter Weston, a British Missionary who also happened to be good friends                      with Enami. Enami must have been quite let down. How embarrassing for Weston !

DISORGANIZED, BUT COMPLETELY FREE PHOTOS, INFORMATION, AND COMMENTARY. PLEASE EAT THE MEAT, AND SPIT OUT THE BONES

          The images and text are tossed on these pages in a hodge-podge manner, and meant to provide a basic, yet sufficient introduction to the formats, style, and range of this often-anonymous Meiji-era Japanese photographer. There is no index or permalinking of subjects to help you find your way here.  Instead, Use the EDIT - FIND function on your tool bar to get to a story or some needed data.

          In other words, this Website is what you call a "Gift Horse with Warts", and was not written for researchers or looky-loos with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder who need it all laid out in perfect order in order before you can glean something from it !These pages are simply a free repository for odd Enami information as it becomes known, while the more orderly hard-copy book (at greater expense to you) is being written. In the meantime, there are plenty of gold nuggets to be found here, but you will have to dig them out by yourself ! (Finally, a Website that puts you to work ! Enjoy your discoveries !)

           Meeting at the Gate.  Photographed ca.1898 at the entrance to the Genkyu Gardens 玄宮園 of            Hikone.  Certainly one of Enami's most popular images, it was originally a stereoview which            is seen and discussed HERE.  Please note that original images are actually much smaller                than appears on your monitor. Although the technical and artistic abilities of Enami's studio             colorists are evident in the above lantern-slide, such detailed care is evident across most               of the small-format images produced by Enami's studio during the last 20 years of the Meiji           era....and beyond.

                             Ca.1898. Kids under Cherry Blossoms ina Yokohama Park

              Baskets n' Brooms n' Shovels n' Scoops.         Ca.1898-1905 Household Goods Store.     

        

                       Ca1898. The Rice Pounder.           Vignette from a half-Stereoview.

               Bashful Babes in the Bamboo Bushes near Yokohama.              Ca.1898-1905

       
          Ca.1895-98  Japanese Ladies out for a Jinrikisha Ride, Same location as THIS VIEW.

        
                        The Bamboo Alley of Old Kyoto.                       Ca.1898-1905

                         Ca.1898.  Kendo Kids.                Vignette from a half-stereoview.

               THE ILLUSTRATIONS

With the exception of the the formal portrait of Enami at the top of this page (attributed by the webmaster to an unknown photographer's assistant at K. Ogawa's studio, or perhaps photographed by K. Ogawa himself), all of the photos on this site are scanned from the original silver prints or lantern-slides.

Enami's portrait at the top of this page is from a halftone illustration published in K. Ogawa's 1913 book Sogyo Kinen Sanju Nenshi [A Celebration of Thirty Years in the Photography Business]. 

This book, containing many other one-of-a-kind images from K. Ogawa's life and times was re-discovered by professional photographer and photo-historian Torin Boyd back in 1994. He was kind enough to send me a copy of the T. Enami portrait (one of only three close images showing Enami that I am aware of) as well as an image showing Enami seated with many other photographers in an outdoor group portrait of the Ogawa Alumni Association. It came out just fine considering it's a SCAN of a XEROX of a HALFTONE made from a long lost PHOTOGRAPH !

The same portrait originating from Boyd's personal copy of the "K. Ogawa Bible" (as he calls it) was first reprinted [republished] by Terry Bennett in both volumes of his 2006 set of Japanese Photo Histories already mentioned in the introduction at the top of this page. 

The rest of the vintage photos appearing on this site are all hand-finished, original works belonging to the webmaster.                       

 For hi-rez fanatics, please access the flickr.com links already provided further above.

Scans from glass lantern-slides, with a few instructive exceptions, do not show the binding tape or labels (however, where masked borders are shown, they are the original shapes). All "color photographs" are actually black-and-white images that were hand tinted in Enami's studio. Each image was laboriously worked on for many hours (some say one to three images a day) while being looked at through a magnifying glass, and the tints applied by fine brushes, some as thin as a single hair.

For the images on this site, and those appearing on Flickr.com, several scanners in different countries were used, as well as digital cameras for slide copying against different light boxes. Therefore, all color and tone rendition both here and on FLICKr should be considered approximate.

Regardless of how some images take to being pixilated on your screen, most of the originals are pin sharp. Except for some uniform matting of stereoview mounts, and occasional straight and vignette cropping to produce half-stereoviews for enlargement, the image content itself is posted "as is".

                 Ca.1898.  On the Road to Nikko.            Vignette from a half-stereoview.

        
 ABOVE:  Ca.1898. Japanese Sleeping Style. During the 1880s and 90s, Japanese photographers offered many versions of these generic "Sleeping Geisha" images for their title lists. To Westerners, the title implies that the day is done, dinner is over, the sun long set, and all visitors have gone home.

Yet, as seen BELOW, most of them, including Enami (during his early days) photographed such subjects utilizing a full skylight illumination from top to bottom. What gives? Well, there are two ways to look at it... First, the earlier ca.1892-95 album view seen below (also used in the 1897 Brinkley JAPAN set as a tipped-in cabinet view), shows Enami's initial tendency to follow the "daytime" lighting styles already established by his famous teacher K. Ogawa and others of the time. 

In real life, more than a few Geisha probably wound up "sleeping in 'till noon" (so to speak) after the occasional all-night dinner parties with half-drunk patrons. On the other hand, the Geisha had to act as photographer's models to portray scenes in the life of "normal" Japanese women. After about 1895, Enami began to depart from the common and consistent use of "broad daylight" to depict his studio subjects in titles and poses that implied what should be a night-time scene.

The stereoview above shows his effort to bring on the "darkness of night", in line with what most purchasers of his views would consider the proper time to "hit the sack". The stereoview is taken during the day, but in what appears to be a real house. Full negative prints reveal that there is a true ceiling there rather than a raised studio space.

                                         Ca.1898. Two Geisha on Veranda.

           
 Ca.1915   Mount Fuji through Pines.                                                 Hand-tinted lantern-slide.

                      The Cormorant Fisherman. From a ca.1898-1907 untransposed stereoview                                     contact proof print.

                             Ca.1895-98 Kinkaku-Ji [The Golden Temple], Kyoto.

            Ca.1898.  The Sumo Match.                             Vignette from a half-stereoview.

            Notice the ladders for access to the balcony bleachers in this rural outdoor venue.

Long an enigmatic figure, and difficult to pin down, T. Enami has, for the better part of a century, inadvertently (and understandably) been omitted from almost all modern Photo-histories of Japan. However, as the picture of who he was and what he accomplished became clear, it also became apparent that his continued exclusion from modern accounts of Japan's photographic past could no longer be justified. In 2006, the first major discussion of Enami and his work finally appeared in two related scholarly photo-history books about Japan (listed further below).

          We now know that his artistic and documentary record was seen by millions during the Meiji and Taisho eras. It has also come to light (more than once) that in some ways his varied activities surpassed the contributions made by many of his well-known contemporaries. 

As you read the story, at some point you may think, How did we miss this guy?  On the other hand, after having the images of Beato, Stillfried, Kimbei, Ogawa, Farsari, and Tamamura rehashed to the bone in numerous scholarly works, it's nice to have someone "new" come along with a portfolio that has barely been tapped , and cleared of the fog that has generally obscured him. 

                          Ca.1898-1907. Group of Sumo Wrestlers with Ceremonial Garb.

                            Ca.1898-99. Getting into the Act.               Vignette from a half-stereoview.

     Ca.1898 "Drying Tea Leaves".                                  Lantern-slide from a half-stereoview.

        The abridged and certified  MAIN STORY of T. Enami found HERE is for all those dealers, collectors, and photo-history buffs interested in Japanese "things photographic". Aspiring curators and editors who will eventually (and inevitably) produce other comprehensive photo-histories (or gallery arrays) of early Japanese images, will find among Enami's wide-ranging portfolio any number of possibilities for expanding your story line and visual presentation.

          The term "certified" as used above means the author worked from.....

          (1) primary sources and documents in Japan;

          (2) Western books and documents with his accredited images;

          (3) interviews with living descendants who accessed legal records for the sake of this story, and provided personal anecdote from memory;

          (4) direct observation of a large amount identified T. Enami images, including his officially numbered and cataloged commercial images, and

          (5) uncataloged but imprinted commercial images --- such as stereoviews and lantern slides, private studio portraits carrying his imprint, or uncataloged images verified as his by unique studio props found in the images.

          It should be noted here that many of Enami's images appearing in the old "Yokohama Albums" originally had numbers and captions somewhere at the bottom that were cut off for aesthetic or other reasons during the mounting process. In these cases, I am calling such views "uncataloged", but this simply means I have not yet been able to match them to their true catalog numbers. In many cases, the views eventually show up elsewhere (either as lantern-slides or prints) with the number and titles still attached.

          As this is not a formal, scholarly presentation of the information (this site is intentionally lacking footnotes and a bibliography) I will reserve the inclusion of most of the above sources and catalog listings for a future hard-copy presentation of the material.  However, some references will be found embedded in the text.

         
             Ca.1908-15.Praying Priest between Pillar and Post.            From a Lantern-slide.

                                    (Variants of this view have been noted)

      Ca.1892-95. The Old Junk. Lantern-slide from an Albumen Print. The above ship image is one of two variants known (Enami only published this one). This was a Public Domain image even at that time. The photo is not  by by Enami, but was included by him in his official catalog. Only a handful of such "acquired" images appear among the more than 860 Japanese flat-print images published by Enami. (His listing of large format prints of the Philippines pushed the printed catalog to over 960 images).

It is quite possible that a handful of views such as above were "gifted" or "sold" to Enami by fellow photographers upon his start-up in Yokohama. In particular, it seems that Tamamura, Kimbei, Ogawa, and possibly others gave him "rights" to some of their generic images to help launch his own catalog of original views. However, these images --- no matter what the source --- are very few, and some are identifiable. Interestingly, I have noted at least one image that was published concurrently by Kimbei, Tamamura, Enami --- and maybe Farsari and Suzuki --- all with different negative numbers ! This is the NAGOYA CASTLE image posted a little bit below.

By percentage, Enami's catalog was much "cleaner" than that of Kimbei, whose initial inclusion of many Beato and Stillfried images made his own early commercial stock a potpourri of foreign and local talent.  

             Ca.1898. Ready for Rain or Snow.                    Vignette from a half-stereoview.

           UNTRANSPOSED STEREOVIEW              CONTACT PROOFS FROM                     ENAMI'S YOKOHAMA STUDIO

    You might be interested in seeing some more annotated, stereoview proof-sheets from Enami's original Meiji-era studio that had been safely stored outside of Japan prior to the great earthquake of 1923. A nice sampling of these are shown in a special flickr.com set HERE.

        Again, only Enami provides us with such historic photo-ephemera from the old Japan.

  THE T. ENAMI CATALOG OF CLASSIC         19th CENTURY ALBUM VIEWS

         While having made visual inspection of nearly 2,000 small-format Enami related images, I could only do the same for about 200 of his larger albumen prints. Making up for this relative dearth of classic album views available for study on my side of the fence, British photo historian Terry Bennett independently spent many years in England and France viewing private collections of Enami-attributed material --- much of it in albums that were lacking Enami's wet-stamp, yet offered other clues in the images themselves. Bennett's efforts and intuition resulted in a huge and valuable list of nearly 400 Enami's album-view numbers and titles.

         But, without an Enami catalog from his own studio, how accurate could Bennett really be ?

         At that time (prior to 2006), an actual Enami-published catalog of his own views was unknown; in fact, it was presumed not to exist. It was thought that if such a thing had ever been published, it surely would have been found by now, given the large number of his clientele, and popular distribution of his images. Of course, not having a catalog would have been the norm, as almost every Meiji-era Japanese photographer of prominence --- with the notable exception of Kimbei Kusakabe --- was, as far as we know, without a printed catalog of their commercially produced album views.

         However, this is no longer the case. As of 2009, Enami now joins the illustrious Kimbei as a member of that rare club of old Japanese photographers with a known catalog. Further, Enami accompanied his catalog with a price list for a wide range of his formats, papers, sizes, and quantities. Enami's catalog will be published in full in the projected hard-copy book being written about him.

         Although the listing of album views is far larger than the number given in Bennett's hard-earned accounting of Enami's work, Enami's catalog has also revealed that Bennett's list was, for the most part, free of error --- an amazing feat considering the similarity of numbers and font style between Enami's work and the work of others of his day. Kudos to Terry Bennett !

         Today, in spite of the discovery of Enami's printed catalog listing hundreds of formerly unknown titles, the number of visually recognized and inspected Enami images has only increased by about 100 views since Bennett's Data Guide was published. Hundreds more numbered and cataloged album views still remain "out there" to be found, and hopefully offered to the institutional and collecting world as "newly recognized" works by Enami. 

  WHEN AN ENAMI VIEW IS NOT AN ENAMI VIEW
 

         It should be noted that -- as with KIMBEI and others during the late Meiji-era -- "published by" did not always mean "photographed by".

         Enami is known to have cataloged and published only a small handful of views that were not photographed by him --- yet these were far less than the number of Kimbei-published views that were not photographed by Kimbei ! That is to say, concerning studio/photographer attribution, Enami's output was much "purer" than that of the Kimbei studio.

         Below is one of these Enami-published (but not by Enami) images.

       
       Ca. 1892-94  Nagoya Castle. Large albumen print. This generic view is one of Enami's earliest cataloged images, it is often found attributed to or published by others, and appears with many different numbers stripped into the negative. I am of the opinion that it was taken by KIMBEI, and one of only a small handful of views given or licensed to Enami to help him in his Yokohama studio start-up. 

      The rest of the images to the end of this Web page are all by Enami's own camera.      

Ca.1898. The Daibutsu at Kamakura.  Rather than focus on the statue by taking a more common "head on" shot, Enami climbed back into the gardens on the side, making the Great Buddha a supporting actor to the depth and composition of the scene. Herbert Ponting, who would later photograph this site for many American stereoview publishers, followed the same indirect style of approach to the statue, possibly being inspired by Enami's own images to do so.

In the old days, it was fairly easy to climb up on the statue to have your picture taken in any ridiculous pose you desired. Those days are (unfortunately) long gone.  However, anyone may still go inside this hollow, hulking hunk of bronze, and, after your eyes get used to the relative darkness, see the graffiti of the ages written by both Japanese and foreign visitors on the metallic walls of the inner belly. .

         

         Into the Mist. Lone Pilgrim on a Mountain Trail.  Photographed ca.1898-1908 by T. ENAMI.                The particular slide above was printed later in Enami's studio, ca.1925-30 from the earlier                image. The above is one of two known images taken along the same trail. The other may              be seen HERE on flickr.

           Some of the material appearing on this Site was complied during the years 2004-2006, and served as a basis for the T. Enami essay and broader 3-D Index appearing in Terry Bennett's Old Japanese Photographs: Collectors' Data Guide (London: Quaritch, 2006). Also in that book will be found Bennett's own valuable listing of 100s of numbers and titles for known Enami album views—a number that continues to grow.

             Bennett's larger work, Photography in Japan 1853-1912 (North Clarendon: Tuttle, 2006) also contains a nicely illustrated chapter on T. Enami, the first of its kind in any Japanese photo-history. This book is not only beautiful to look at, but a fascinating and detailed tour of early Japanese photography in general. While T. Enami is incorrectly called Enami Tamotsu in the Chapter headings and text, this understandable error—common among all pre-2007 resources where Enami is mentioned—was quickly corrected in Bennett's own Data Guide after Enami’s grandson finally cleared up the confusion. Both books are recommended for those wishing more detail, and more extensive bibliographic references than are found embedded in the story presented here.

          All Bennett publications may be viewed (and ordered) HERE

 Ca. 1892-95 The above lantern-slide images represent some of Enami's earliest studies including people. The black mask shapes are originals by Enami. On the second page of this Website (The Main Story page at the "Services" button) a later version of the above slide may be seen with a "square" matte.

The image of the priests with their "umbrella man" is one of over twenty T. Enami images used by Burton Holmes to illustrate the Japan portion of his best-selling, multi-volume Travelogue series. The early book sets, first published in 1901, were careful to credit all photographers whose images filled the pages; however, this one slipped by without credit.

For Holmes' book, the plate-makers removed all background material in the image, leaving only the four figures with their umbrella. Such image manipulation was common in a era where the old artists and engravers were being called on to prepare half-tone plates from photographs. (Such an image appearing a "wood engraving" would also most likely have the background highly simplified, or removed entirely). 

After many years, the Travelogue publisher erased all photographer credit lines from beneath the images. This eventually led some later publications that used the Burton Holmes Collection to erroneously attribute to Holmes the work of many Japanese (and some American) photographers. Holmes biographer, Genoa Caldwell, has done much to correct these errors of attribution.

              Ca.1898. A Geisha Amongst Lilies.            Lantern-slide from a half-stereoview.

              Ca.1898. On the Crater's Lip. Mt. Asama.                Hand-tinted lantern-Slide.

      
            Ca.1898.  No Time for Play.                              Vignette from a half-stereoview.

         At several places throughout this Site, some seemingly extravagant or inflated claims will be made for Enami, yet all such boasting on his behalf is squarely backed up by data that is now being complied for a book.

          As mentioned, the original T. Enami photographs inserted throughout this site were collected from sources in several countries. Enami's view-list was so great that most any collection of his material will be unique. The particular images used here, while sometimes illustrating the text at hand, are, for the most part, randomly inserted for decorative "gallery" purposes to show Enami's particular styles.

         If you have the ability to "free view" (and in spite of the poor resolution of the screen), the quality and depth of Enami's stereoview compositions will speak for themselves.

       Ca.1898. Wayside Rest on the Rustic Road to Fuji. A classic composition in detailed depth.

        For what it's worth, you might be interested to know that—with the exception of seven Japanese documents such as phone books and business directories that simply recorded his name and address in Japanese, and one 1952 listing of Japanese photographers that devotes only four lines to him—the information provided here in English (as well as in Bennett's books published in 2006) is currently far more than what is available to the Japanese in their own language.

      The problems described in the introduction at the top of this page will surely become moot as Japanese photo researchers avail themselves more and more of information and images found on the Web, and the almost ubiquitous software translation services that are now able to automatically translate Web pages such as these back into the Japanese language --- and their own web-published information into our languages.

    Click HERE for the illustrated MAIN STORY PAGE on T. Enami.

                                                                                  
Ca.1892-95 Sanmaibashi. Lantern-slide. Compare tones and tint with albumen print version below. 

          Ca.1905-15. The Great Torii at Miyajima.                 Vignette from a lantern-slide.

             Ca.1898. Porcelain Crafters.                            Vignette from a half-stereoview.

                   Ca. 1910-15   Young Girl with Fisherman.                           Hand-tinted lantern-slide. 

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