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, Prolific, Anonymous Contributor To the World of Meiji-era Yokohama Album Views, Dedicated Street Photographer, and Honored Alumni of National Geographic Magazine

NOBUKUNI ENAMI (1859-1929)

Enami opened his Yokohama studio in APRIL, 1892.

    The images he took between then and his death in 1929 are still found throughout the world in books, magazines, original albums, and one-off photographs of all sizes and subjects (including 3-D).

    Enami's commercially numbered and titled images found in two known catalogs eventually exceeded that of his more famous elder in the business, Kimbei Kusakabe, the only other 19th Century Japanese photographer for whom a surviving commercial catalog exisits.

ILLUSTRATED BACKGROUND DATA ON ENAMI IS FOUND BELOW.

ENAMI'S PHOTOGRAPHIC ACCOMPLISHMENTS ARE LISTED AND ILLUSTRATED HERE

The formal portrait of Japanese Photographer T. Enami seen three images above was possibly taken in 1909 --- dated by the outdoor group portrait shown below (fourth photo down) published in association with it. If so, Enami would be about 50 years old, with 20 years of photographic activity still ahead of him.

The original silver prints of both of these images have been lost, and are reproduced here from halftone illustrations published in K. Ogawa's 1913 book SOGYO KINEN SANJU NEN SHI [A Celebration of Thirty Years in the Photography Business] --- a commemorative book detailing the history of K. Ogawa's commercial photographic enterprises that, among other things, provided portraits of the photographers and associate members of the K. Ogawa Alumni Association.

This rare book was re-discovered in 1994 by professional photographer and photo-historian Torin Boyd. He was kind enough to send me copies of these halftone illustrations, which look just fine here...considering they are both SCANS of a XEROX of HALFTONES made from a long lost PHOTOGRAPH !

In 2006, Terry Bennett became the first to republish the formal Enami portrait in his best-selling book PHOTOGRAPHY IN JAPAN - 1853-1912.

" T."

Q: If his first name was Nobukuni, why didn't he call himself N. Enami ?

A: Enami replaced the N. with a T. to create his photographer's Trade Name. This was a far less drastic change than that made by the author Samuel Clemens who took Mark Twain for his now-famous pen name !

Why did Enami pick the letter T. ? CURRENT BEST ANSWER : The T. might have stood for the nickname Toshi, which happens to be an alternate reading of Nobu, which was the first character of his real name. Enami's own grandson, who was himself not sure about the T., agreed to the same possibility. In any case, while Toshi remains the best bet, no one knows for sure.

OTHER RARE PORTRAITS OF T. ENAMI

Two other collectible portraits of Enami can be found as stereoviews published by GRIFFITH & GRIFFITH, and C.H. Graves' UNIVERSAL PHOTO ART CO. These American-issued stereoviews are relatively rare, but still find their way to the occasional on-line auction, or box of views at a photo show. Both show Photographer Enami in full Samurai costume in his Yokohama studio, the shutter tripped by either his wife, or a studio assistant. They are shown just below.

Although the copyright dates are separated by two years, they are both variants from the same SELF PORTRAIT session, most likely taken somewhere between 1898 and early 1900. In many places I have used "ca.1989" as a nominal date for many of his early views that otherwise remain difficult to nail down by image content alone. ABOVE : "1800. Japanese Armor". This is the earliest verified image of T. ENAMI, published by GRIFFITH & GRIFFITH of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Published in 1900 with catalog (or negative number) 1800, it was the first of almost 200 real-photo Enami stereoviews issued by Griffith during that year. Griffith also appears to be the first stereoview publisher outside of Japan to issue Enami's stereoviews.

Strong evidence suggests that Enami directly supplied the raw 3-D images to the Griffith Brothers, and that Griffith's entire JAPAN line was fully authorized by Enami. Japan-proper stereoviews found on Griffith & Griffith mounts are true, real-photo T. ENAMI images, although printed and mounted by Western hands in Philadelphia.

In a sense, at least as far as the Japanese stereoviews were concerned, Griffith & Griffith's Philadelphia darkroom could have been considered a "Branch Operation" of Enami's own Yokohama studio. The only difference was that, with rare exception, the Griffith prints were all Black & White, while Enami's Yokohama prints were largely hand colored.

BELOW : "190. Ancient Warrior Costume of the Japanese. Japan". Copyright and published two years later in 1902, by C.H. GRAVES as part of his first offering of real-photo Japan views. Position No.190 in an ambitious 200-view JAPAN set under the UNIVERSAL PHOTO ART COMPANY banner. Most of the views in this set were by H.G. PONTING, but included many T. ENAMI views that Ponting liked, and had sent back to the company along with his own.

Beside the Enami portrait at the top of this page, Boyd's discovery also contained many other one-of-a-kind images from Ogawa's life and times, including the below Meiji-era group portrait showing T. Enami (enlarged in the oval for this website posting), the illustrious K. Ogawa (seated center in a stove-pipe hat), K. Tamamura (in a top hat, seated third to Ogawa's right), and many other notables from Japan's photographic world.

T. ENAMI (enlarged #14) seated with K. OGAWA and other notables. Tokyo, 1909

In the above photo, it is interesting that Tamamura and Enami are on the same row, seated equidistant on either side of the centrally posed Ogawa. Only three years after this April 1909 group photo was taken, Ogawa would publish a folio plate-book of Mt. Fuji photographs [cover shown below] featuring images taken only by the three of them. This 1912 book is described in more detail with two sample photos shown at list-item (26) on the next page of this website. FUJI SAN -- A 1912 K.Ogawa publication featuring many credited T. Enami photos taken during the last years of the Meiji era.

See the full contents of FUJI SAN at the Baxley Website HERE.

THE "BRINKLEY SETS"

Prior to the above FUJI SAN book, Ogawa, Tamamura, and Enami had also contributed many photographic illustrations to the ubiquitous TRAVELOGUES book series written by Burton Holmes. This important Enami-Holmes connection is discussed in more detail at numbers (21) and (22) on the "ENAMI LIST" that forms the top half of page two.

However, even before the TRAVELOGUES began their publication in the early 20th Century, in the late 19th century these photographers had already been closely involved in the 1897 production of Brinkley's JAPAN - DESCRIBED AND ILLUSTRATED BY THE JAPANESE. ABOVE : The12-Volume version of the 1897 "Brinkley Set" having 260 tipped in, hand-colored albumen photos. The covers are made from multi-hued silk over boards. Only the first ten volumes contain the real-photo illustrations. So far, the largest number of identified photographs used in the various versions of this folio-sized set were taken by T. ENAMI. [Followed by KIMBEI, TAMAMURA, and several others].

This set of folio-sized, real-photo-illustrated books is well known to collectors and dealers, and is often found broken up in order to sell the 60 large, and 200 small hand-tinted albumen photos on eBay and elsewhere.

Ogawa provided the color-collotype flower images for the frontispiece of each of the ten volumes; Enami provided the largest body of identified albumen prints, including the first matted albumen (Mt. Fuji) in Volume One; and Tamamura, while also providing many of his own images, is said to have organized and overseen the "over 350 native artists" --- mostly the sun-printers and colorists --- as well as soliciting photographic contributions from Kimbei and other studios.

As efforts to identify the photographers behind the Brinkley images continues, the number of Kimbei contributions currently follows at a close second behind those of Enami. The"Brinkley Sets" are discussed and illustrated in greater detail on page two of this Website, and at this Flickr caption.

Over 350 photo-colorists put to work on this very expensive project !

ONE T. TOO MANY !

In some ways, Enami's "trade name" situation is unique. All of Enami's well-known contemporaries stuck with their "real names", and any initials they used when marking their work corresponded to their real names. However, Enami's "uniqueness" also led to some confusion for photo-historians, as Enami's son (in fact, two of his sons) also shared the initial T.

Enami's first son, Tamotsu (who was not a photographer), kept the T. Enami moniker for himself when, after his father's death, he took over the studio in 1929. Tamotsu ran the studio in a business capacity to....

(1) continue selling images from his father's portfolio. These are mostly found today as unnumbered and uncaptioned lantern-slides marked with a T. ENAMI - 29 BENTEN STREET label, but also included black and white "instant snapshot" prints sold to tourists, businessmen, and missionaries who passed through Yokohama, and used the photos to augment their own photos.

and...

(2) process and color the work of tourists and amateurs. These are mostly found today as lantern-slides having personal, amateur image content of both Japanese and foreign locations. I have personally seen over 500 such "T. Enami" labeled slides of locations all around the world.

Although Enami had passed away in 1929, the general processing quality and coloring remained consistent. It is assumed that Tamotsu continued using the old darkroom staff and photo colorists who were assembled and trained by his father.

After the great earthquake of 1923, when Enami moved from his old No.9 Benten Street address to rebuild at No.29, he made the above letterhead that would take him to his last day. After he passed away in 1929, his son Tamotsu continued to use the same stationary until it ran out.

Tamotsu eventually dropped the PHOTOGRAPHER by-line when he reprinted new stationary and envelopes, as in the 1931 example below.

K. OGAWA and T. ENAMI

...and the rest of ENAMI'S "PHOTOGRAPHIC FAMILY TREE"

Early documentation is scant, but Japanese photo-historians state that the minimal references to Enami indicate he learned the art and science of photography from the well known photographer and collotypist K. Ogawa (). Born in 1860, Ogawa was a year younger than Enami.

In all post-1950 Japanese and Western sources that mention him, Enami is variously called either a "disciple", "student", or sometimes an "assistant" of Ogawa. Both men were born in Edo-Bakumatsu-era Tokyo, which was then called Edo, or Yedo. Ogawa learned photography from Hideo Yoshiwara.

The Wikipedia states that whileOgawa was in Yokohama studying English, he took some additional photographic lessons from the pioneering photographer Renjo Shimooka. The Wiki links do not lead to any direct verification of this claim, and such a "photographic grand-father" position of Shimooka to Enami needs further research before being confirmed --- or tossed in the trash can of errant scholarship.

If true, it would greatly extend Enami's "3-D Family Tree", His teacher, K. Ogawa, was himself quite handy with a stereo camera, producing a set of over 100 cabinet-sized stereoviews in the late 1880s. If further research someday proves that Shimooka really did have a part (albeit, even a small one) in teaching Ogawa, that would immediately connect Enami to at least three other stereo-photographers that came before him --- Renjo Shomooka, Matsusaburo Yokoyama (another disciple of Shimooka), and the American John Wilson. Wilson discipled Shimooka, and eventually sold Shimooka all of his photography equipment, including his stereo-camera(s).

In any case, Enami did follow in the 3-D footsteps of his teacher, and did nothing less than honor his stereo-heritage by making what are arguably....

the finest stereoviews

to come out of Japan.

GEISHA AND MAIKO on a SHADY VERANDA. A fine study of two old session variants.

ABOVE : A young Geisha or Maiko modeling as a "Country Flower Girl". The top view shows an original, untransposed and unmounted proof print. The bottom view is the finished, hand-colored stereoview.

BELOW : A popular Enami lantern-slide made from a half-stereoview negative that was photographed during the same session as the above. Although they might look the same at first glance, if you compare the area where her left hand is holding her "head wrap", you can tell that these are two different negatives. Enami usually took many "variants" of each stereoview.

While Enami's earlier output of lantern-slides were reductions made from his over 850 commercial album views, he gradually began mixing in images made from stereoviews. Toward the end of the Meiji-era, most of the lantern-slides in his 50 and 100-view boxed sets contained images made from stereoviews.

CLICK HERE FOR......

T. ENAMI 3-D CONVERSIONS ON YouTube !

Ca.1907-10. Wayside Rest on the Rustic Road to Fuji. A classic composition in detailed depth. In 1905-6, British photographer Herbert George Ponting took a similar stereoviews at this exact same spot. Enami might have seen it, and been inspired to take the same composition with his own rustic models. The exact timing of this Enami view, and a few others that share similarities with Ponting's work, are still under scrutiny. When Ponting first arrived in japan in 1901, it was he who was inspired by T. Enami's 3-D compositions. Both also shared a publishing relationship with Enami's teacher, K. Ogawa. Enami and Ponting might also have shared a photo-camaraderie over the years, and possibly took a 3-D Photo trek together, catching similar views at the same time for their own respective clientele. This is still in the realm of speculation, and further research is ongoing.

ENAMI MOVES ON

Studio dates imply that the Student-Teacher relationship between Ogawa and Enami possibly began in the mid-to-late 1880s, while they were both in their twenties and living in Tokyo. Since the timing of the "Student" and "assistant" phases is not known, we cannot say how long Enami was directly associated with Ogawa. However, Enami eventually struck out on his own, and moved to Yokohama. There, in April of 1892, at age 33, he opened his first studio on Benten Street.

As evidenced by some examples given above, Ogawa and Enami maintained a professional, working relationship for most of their lives, until both men passed away in 1929.

The K of K. Ogawa's name is discussed further below.

A more complete picture of Enami's life, as well as what he produced, and the legacy of his studio, is found on page two of this Website.

More Background information and Images from Enami's large portfolio continues below.

Japanese Junks Under Sail. A Classic T. Enami image of old Japan. ca.1898-1907

The above stereoview is seen as a lantern-slide version at the top of this page, and is also discussed on page two of this Website. It was widely published.

A LESSON IN JAPANESE

-- THEN, AND NOW --

The old, pre-WW2-style Japanese name characters printed under Enami's old portrait above read from right to left --- the opposite direction from English --- in the customary "family-name-first" Japanese way of writing and saying a persons name: Enami Nobukuni.

After WW2 and until today, Japanese names are still spoken and written "family-name-first"; but, as part of sweeping language revisions made by the Japanese Ministry of Education, horizontally-written Japanese (such as Enami's name under the above photo) is now written from left to right --- in line with direction of standard English.

E Nami Nobu Kuni = Enami Nobukuni.

A NOTE TO ALL BUDDING TRANSLATORS AND SCHOLARLY SCHOLARS

While the world of serious scholarship usually aims to maintain Japanese name order when converting things into English and other Western languages, it might surprise some to know that, at least in the world of non-scholarly translation it has always been the accepted custom of professional Japanese-English translators and translation teams to follow the Western name order of placing family names last.

That is to say, when translating a Japanese name into English for business cards, popular book or magazine covers, and general announcements, Japanese translators rarely adhear to Japanese name order, but instead reverse it --- writing it (or saying it) the English (or Western) way --- NOT the Japanese way !

Thus, the Japanese Enami Nobukuni becomes Nobukuni Enami in English, French, German, Swedish, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, and etc.

In the same way, all other Japanese names on this "popular" and "colloqial" site are also written in Western name order. However, if I were to submit a serious paper on T. Enami to a scholarly publication attched to a University, the editors would probably re-arrange things to conform to native Japanese name order.

Fortunately for both sides, the Japanese are very patient, and they don't really care what name order is used by well-meaning foreigners.

Strangely, the Japanese prefer Westerners to keep their native name order even when converted into Japanese kana characters. Thus, Tom Cruise in English remains Tom Cruise in Japanese spoken conversation, and in written translations !

With the exception of the name KIMBEI (photographer Kimbei Kusakabe's first name), all other one-word name references on this site are the photographers last names (both Japanese and Westerners) --- TAMAMURA, OGAWA, BEATO, SUZUKI, STILLFRIED, FARSARI, KAJIMA, ESAKI, and etc.

"T. Enami" never appears in the Japanese language,

and was only used in Alphabet form for himself, his studio sign, and the various imprints found on private and commercial images sold out of his studios in Japan, and the branch-studios he established overseas.

Although Enami was enlisted as an Imperial Army Photographer during the Russo-Japan War (1904-05), his business was primarily aimed at foreign tourists and the commercial stock photo market. As you look around this site, the details of this will eventually be stumbled across, as well as many other interesting tid-bits about old "photographic Japan".

The above image shows T. Enami's studio at No.9 Benten Street in Yokohama, ca.1905. He was located here from 1892-1923, moving to a new address on Benten Street after the above location was destroyed by the Great Earthquake and Fire of September 1st, 1923. This hand-colored collotype postcard is also shown on page two of this Website (SERVICES page), along with more commentary and a "TODAY" shot taken from the same camera standpoint in 2006. An older street scene showing his studio appears there as well.

T. Enami's business card, circa 1905-10

BELOW: ALTHOUGH ENAMI'S EARLIEST 1890s STEREOVIEWS HAD NO IMPRINTS ON EITHER THE FRONT OR BACK, WHEN HE DID START ADDING HIS NAME, IT WAS ON THE VERY BOTTOM OF THE BACK SIDE. HE MOVED HIS IMPRINT TO THE FRONT OF THE VIEWS DURING THE EARLY 1900S.

UNTIL 1905, ENAMI'S MOST COMMON CARD STOCKS WERE THE THREE COLORS SEEN BELOW. STARTING AROUND 1906, HE BEGAN MOUNTING HIS STEREOVIEWS ON GREEN STOCK. IT MUST BE REMEMBERED THAT GREEN ONLY DATES THE PRINT. THE ACTUAL NEGATIVE COULD HAVE BEEN TAKEN MUCH EARLIER.

ABOVE : Close up of Enami's earliest 1898-1902 imprints found on the back of his stereoviews. From about 1903, he moved his imprints to the front of the views.

THE COST OF JAPANESE STUDIO PHOTOGRAPH AND COMMERCIAL IMAGES AT THE END OF THE MEIJI-ERA

T. ENAMI'S GUIDE TO ALL MAJOR FORMATS

There are probably a few folks who wonder about such things as, How much did it cost to have your portrait photo taken ? and, What did they charge for extra copies ? and, How much did stereoviews cost back then ? and, Were Lantern slides very expensive ? and, How much extra did it cost for the hand coloring ? and, Did the photo dealers give bulk discounts ? and etc.

For these questions and more, T. Enami to the rescue.

The following circa 1905-10 list documenting single shot and bulk price listing for all major commercial and studio formats --- from the smallest CDV size (called CARD by Enami) up to MAMMOTH prints (17 x 22 inches), as well as lantern slides and stereoviews --- should be of interest to all student of old Japanese photography. The data has been scanned directly from the only known copy, and the sections vertically arranged to fit the format of this Website.

Although standard "Inflation Calculators" are almost useless for converting the Sen and Yen prices into modern day currency values, careful study of old Japanese commodity and salary / wage charts should prove helpful in determining the "real" costs being charged at the time, and how much extra the beautiful hand-coloring of the old images cost the customer who refused to settle for black and white.

For those interested in the photographic papers, note that the word ALBUMEN is conspicuously absent from the lists. However, albumen was a mainstay paper of Enami's prolific "Yokohama Photograph" souvenir album work, and --- at least for the moment --- I speculate that the the P.O.P. PAPER (Printing Out Paper) he lists was actually ALBUMEN PAPER.

All of these photographic mediums can be researched on line. However, always remember that the popularity of certain papers and printing processes in Japan did not always match those of the west. This remains an area for further study, and Enami's chart below is offered here as another piece of helpful data for those wanting to pursue these interesting aspects of photographic history.

To help get you started, I have made some sample calculations in the second part of the caption of the Enami stereoview posted on Flickr HERE.

"....Real collectors and connoisseurs of the antique photographic image would never concern themselves with acquiring cheap, beat up old Litho-views...."

IF THAT IS TRUE (AND I'M NOT SAYING IT IS) IT MIGHT BE BECAUSE SOME COLLECTORS HAVE MORE MONEY THAN BRAINS.

DON'T BE LIKE THEM !

A Busy Scene in T. Enami's Yokohama Studio, ca.1898-1900. Coloring Cabinet Views, Looking at Stereoviews, Enjoying a 50-view album of Japanese albumens, with loose piles of stereoviews on the floor, loose albumen prints of the Philippines, and rare, multi-image collage prints. Sears, Roebuck & Co, published over 100 Japan-proper stereoviews --- every one of them photographed by T. ENAMI. (The Russo-Japan War set was photographed in China by Richard Barry of the San Francisco Chronicle)

OK, let's admit it. These cursed little items that are spit on at high-end Photo Shows are the photographic equivalent of Kryptonite to the Super-Collectors.

Every day on eBay, and at flea markets and Antique shops all around the world, 100s, and even 1000s of these cheap, gaudy, beat up old litho-views are on sale for a relative pittance. Being creased, dog-eared, and blighted with off-register printing plates helps to bring the price down even more.

The Ingersoll-Sears views alone (such as #676 above) number over 1,300 titles of world-wide subjects. Incredible numbers of these views --- boxed in sets of 100 according to Country or Theme --- were sold from 1904-1910 through Sears & Roebuck's BIG BOOK CATALOG. Yearly catalog circulation was often greater than five or six million copies !

Beside Sears, countless other publishers vied to see who could make even more of these things with halftone screens, bamboozling the 3D-loving public into looking at fuzzy fields of what looked like and explosion of polka-dots. Not too bad if they were free-viewed, though.

THEY SHOULD ALL BE BURNED !!!

Hey. Not so fast. In spite of the horrid half-tone dots and dubious colors, if you stumble across one that has a good subject and nice composition, decent stereo-depth, or an important historic detail that you have seen nowhere else, then by all means you should BUY THE VIEW.

You might ask,

WHY SHOULD I BUY A CHEAP OLD LITHO-VIEW?

"WHY WASTE THE MONEY ?"

The answer is simple. In all likelihood, the original glass negative used to make the view is sitting right on top of the San Andreas Fault in Riverside, California.

Huh ?

The California Museum of Photography (University of California, Riverside Campus) holds all of the original negatives used to make the litho-views.

As for any impending slippage of the San Andreas Fault, the CMP has prepared for the worst, and even if THE BIG ONE hits Riverside, the negatives should survive unscathed.

Therefore, if you buy the cheap litho-view, you have the ultimate guide-key to finding the original, pristine, HIGH RESOLUTION, 5 X 7 inch glass stereo negative, or a 3 1/2 or 4 x 7 inch production negative used to make your little dog-eared view from the dollar box.

If you are a collector worth your salt, you already know that most litho-views were also published as real-photo views. Every forlorn litho-view you come across is a "heads-up" to look for existing silver-print versions.

By the way, there are over 250,000 of these 3-D negatives, including negatives not just of the old litho-views, but probably for every curved-mount stereoview sold by most publishers from the late 1800s through to the 1930s. That means you can also get a high-resolution, poster-sized print of your favorite KEYSTONE VIEW --- including more of the image than you get on the old view itself !The only thing standing between you and all of these great possibilities is...your checkbook !

Most people who have original silver-print "Keystone-type" stereoviews are usually satisfied doing their own copy and enlargement work from them, and rarely think about accessing the original negatives. However, for critical research, and demanding publication or exhibition needs, the original negatives offer much more of the image, and in sharper detail.

As for researchers, publishers, book illustrators, poster makers, greeting card creators, gallery owners, and designers of museum exhibitions and historic displays who are stuck with images known only to exist as halftones....

The California Museum of Photography will use your grubby little litho-view to guide them to the ORIGINAL NEGATIVE, which they will then carefully scan in order to....

CONVERT THIS...

TO THIS ....

...and use even higher-resolution negative scans to convert small areas and important details you have always wondered about....

FROM THIS ....

TO THIS ....

The above two black-and-white details were scanned from the original negative by Leigh Gleason, Curator of Collections at the California Museum of Photography, and posted here with their kind permission. SEE MORE ON THE CMP AT ITEM NUMBER (13) ON THE INTERNET SOURCE LIST FURTHER BELOW

EXHIBITION POSTER SIZE, OR BUST !

So, don't be a dummy. Pick up those some of those cheap old litho views with great subjects that appeal to you, and keep them in a box for the day you want to surprise the world with your history-making exhibition --- illustrated with rich and rewarding images (as big as a poster, or a wall, if that's what you need) all made from the Long Lost Original Negatives waiting for you out in California.

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT ALL HOPE WAS LOST

IMAGING GETTING TRUE PHOTOGRAPHIC STUDY PRINTS OF YOUR FAVORITE OLD LITHO-VIEWS, PRINTED FROM THE ORIGINAL NEGATIVES, AND MOUNTING THEM YOURSELF FOR ENJOYMENT IN YOUR OWN STEREOSCOPE.

Japanese Boys Beating the Crap out of Each Other. By T. ENAMI ca.1898-1900. 3-Color litho No.679 published by Sears, Roebuck & Co, on white card stock, 1905. The small framed albumen print seen in the low, black room divider on the right side of the view is from Enami's Catalog of late 19th Century Prints and Lantern-slides, and may be seen as a lantern-slide about 15 photos below, or on Flickr HERE.

Speaking of things that are "LONG LOST", here's the real story of ....

HOW T. ENAMI RE-EMERGED FROM RELATIVE OBSCURITY

PURPLE FUJI FROM THE KASHIWABARA MARSHES. Ca.1892-5 Hand-colored Albumen Print. Also used as lead matted photograph in volume one of the 1897 "Brinkley's Set" of Japan.

FROM A FORGOTTEN NOBODY...

...TO A RE-DISCOVERED SOMEBODY

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.

Mount Fuji and the Boatmen of Kashiwabara. Ca.1898-1903

During the few short years since the above book 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, Enami 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 an "Appendix of Yokohama Photographers" in another Japanese book, where photo historian Takio Saito listed several old business directories wherein Enami's name and studio address were found. (Continued after illustrations)

ABOVE : Original, hand-colored Meiji-era stereoview ca.1898-1908

BELOW: A full half-stereoview variant print taken from a different angle around the curve of the bluff. Packets of these half-stereoview images were sold by Enami to late-Meiji and Taisho-era tourists. The small contact prints were used to augment the travelers own "Kodak Moments" when putting together scrapbooks and photo albums to show the folks back home.

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.

Itinerany Tobacco Pipe Repairman (Also in H. Suito Catalog)

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 accredited 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.

A farmer by his Flooded Rice Paddy (Also in H. Suito Catalog)

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.

A cropped portion of Enami's very abstract Umbrella Farm. Ca.1910-20

Since this emergence from the general fog that once obscured him, Enami has shown himself to be full of surprises. Also, along with this sudden ability to identify without question a large body of his photographs, we are now able 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 gelatin silver print.

This set of Enami-attributed photos is full of such unreserved candor. Discussed there is a question of attribution that has recently arisen due to the image also appearing in the H. SUITO catalog.

BELOW : Four ca.1892-1899 studio and scenic studies. The Umbrella Girl image, taken twenty years or more before the above photo of the smiling farm girls, is discussed on page two of this Website.

ABOVE : Four Lantern-Slide images from Enami's 1892-1905 mid-to-late Meiji period. The top view of the girl with the umbrella was one of over forty T. ENAMI photographs that were used to illustrate many versions of the 1897 Brinkley Sets.

MORE T. ENAMI ON

(AND OFF) THE WEB



For those who might take a liking to Enami's Meiji-era photos, and would like to see (or just know about) other collections of his work, and information sources beside what you find here on this Website and on Flickr, the list below will get you started :

(1) NAGASAKI UNIVERSITY LIBRARY COLLECTION has a set of 49 beautiful T. Enami lantern-slides. At the link below, type the number 98 into the left-most space of the Cabinet search box, then Click the search button. 50 thumbnails will appear click again on any of them for a better look ! [NOTE : Image No.5067 is not by Enami, leaving 49 views that are by him. The site still lists ALL of the Enami images as "Photographer: Unknown"].

oldphoto.lb.nagasaki-u.ac.jp/en/cabinet.html

The four screen shots shown below are samples of what you should be looking at once you navigate the few steps needed to get into the Enami Collection. I am posting these in accordance with non-profit fair use copyright rules for review, promotion, and explanation of the Nagasaki University Library Collection.

You might see some Enami views on the Nagasaki Site (and on the other sites listed below) that appear to be exact copies of images posted here on the t-enami.org site, and at the extension sets on Flickr. However, if you compare them closely, you will see that they are "worked up" differently by Enami and his studio colorists as they made them one-by-one, over a century ago.

As you can see, the hand-colored NUL lantern-slide image of three girls seated at a flower show was made by Enami from a half-stereoview. In this case, a close "session variant" was used.

During the Meiji era (prior to 1912), all of Enami's lantern-slides were reductions from the large glass negatives used to make the "Yokohama Album View" prints, or from half-stereoview glass negatives. It would not be until the Taisho era (1912-26) that Enami began adding images from 2-D stock believed to have been taken with roll-film cameras.

Below : A couple of FIRE and ICE images by T. Enami

T. Enami's photographs are all accompanied by interesting descriptions, explanations, and historic notations written by the Library staff and researchers.

Right-click on the images to view in a larger, readable size. Please visit the Nagasaki Library's "Metadata Database" for more of the same !

(2) KANAGAWA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY [KUL] has 59 Enami stereoviews held in a special archive room.The images are all black and white, and mounted on his earlier beige-colored card stock. Previously uploaded to the Web in 2009, they were removed in mid-2010. As of this writing, they have not re-appeared.

Screen Shots from Kanagawa University Library's on-line posting of their T. Enami stereoview collection. Grabbed for fair, non-profit use to illustrate and promote the Enami content of their Library collection. Like most Enami 3-D images found in collections around the world, careful composition and processing are self-evident. [NOTE: Use of the openly published KUL scans is allowed under current copyright law pertaining to unmodified digital scans of pre-1923 public domain images, defined by summary judgment handed down in the case of Bridgeman vs.Corel.]

It is important to note that most of Enami's stereoviews are imprinted with SOLD ONLY BY T. ENAMI (as opposed to a more solid PHOTOGRAPHED BY T. ENAMI). "Sold by" certainly allows for the possibility that these images were photographed by someone else, and only published (or sold) by Enami. Although it is now known that Enami was also the author of his own stereoviews (and that he seems to have borrowed the "Sold Only By..." imprint from his main American distributor), some not familiar with this situation might still suffer a "misdirect" by the wording on the mounts. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why, at the time they were posted, the Librarian or Curator of the KUL decided to attribute all of Enami's images to the foreign photographer FELIX BEATO. Prior to posting the images, there was text-only notification that the Library held images by T. ENAMI. But when they posted the images, Enami's name was entirely deleted from the sight, and replaced with full credit being given to BEATO.

Since the stereoviews are currently not available to view on line (except for the four "screen grabs" you see here), let's discuss the University's attribution of these views to the illustrious Beato --- an attribution with which there are a few problems. Namely...

(1) Felix Beato photographed his Japanese images in the 1860s and 70s, long before Enami opened his studio, (2) Beato only made prints by the albumen process, and all of the Enami stereoviews in their collection are gelatin silver prints, and (3) There is no evidence that Beato ever photographed or published stereoview images of Japan --- or any other location. Those three points would not matter, of course, if Enami was printing his views from a rare and secret stock of old Beato stereo-negatives that no one knew about. However, that possibility can be dispensed with because (4) Beato was not in Japan during the later, datable content of Enami's stereoviews.

The ABOVE view from the Kanagawa University Library Collection can be seen in color HERE. It is also discussed on the next page of this site.

The BELOW view from the KUL is followed by a hand colored image on glass from the Webmaster's collection.

Even though Enami's name is on every mount of the stereoviews in the Kanagawa University Collection (and his work and biographical info now found all over the Web) the well-meaning but "Google-Shy" photo-archivist of this Japanese University apparently didn't believe that one of their own could take such nice photos, and --- in spite of the above-mentioned problems --- made an out-of-the-blue decision to attribute them to the pioneering Beato.

FRIENDLY ADVICE : If you are an archivist, curator, photo-librarian, or a scholar of photographic history, doing just a bit more homework might save you from accidentally attributing a box of 1895-to-1910 Japanese-subject gelatin silver prints to the late, great Felix Beato !

The below link to the photos in now inoperable, but will take you to the former page that hosted the images.

klibredb.lib.kanagawa-u.ac.jp/dspace/items-by-author?auth...

(3) The PRESBYTERIAN ARCHIVES in New Zealand has a fine collection of over 80 Enami lantern-slides --- which they have uploaded to the Web as a Collection on Flickr. Their large Enami archive of general and dedicated categories may be seen in its entirety, including two rather rare and beautiful series on SILK and TEA production :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pcanzarchives/collections/72157624458409751/

(4) The ROBERT CORNELY COLLECTION of old Enami lantern slides may be seen here. Click a TAB, then click on a PIC :

historicartimages.com/scenesofmeiji/index.html

(5)The UNIVERSITY OF OREGON holds the huge Gertrude Bass Warner Collection of nearly 5,500 "mixed photographer" lantern-slides from Enami's day and age. She was a definite "slide nut" (in a good way, of course) and hauled back quite a bit of photographs from Japan.

The University has posted 93 sample lantern-slides from among the 5,500 they have, and that narrow slice holds many identified T. Enami views.

Simple extrapolation allows us to speculate that Enami makes up a valuable part of the archives images. See how many Enami photographs you can spot on the many pages of samples posted here :

libweb.uoregon.edu/speccoll/photo/warner/fWarner.html

(6) The UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON LIBRARIES houses the Helen Ford Collection of over 300 Enami slides. None are posted on line. However, a concise description of the collection is given here :

www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/findaids/docs/photosgr...

(7) The PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM has over 50 beautiful Enami slides, none posted on line at their own site. However, they gave kind permission to post some examples here on my PEM Set in this Collections group. Thanks, PEM !

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/sets/72157613945016316/

(8) The GEORGE EASTMAN HOUSE INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY also has a beautiful collection of about two dozen beautifully hand-colored stereoviews (many that I've not seen elsewhere), as well as about 50 equally beautiful lantern slides. At the moment, all of these images are off line.

(9) The ROYAL GORGE REGIONAL MUSEUM & HISTORY CENTER in Caon City, Colorado has a collection of over 50 post-1923 Enami slides. At the moment, these images are off line.

(10) The PHOTOGUIDE.JP Website, written and hosted by Philbert Ono has what is probably the earliest, modern-day article devoted to T. Enami. Written in 1997 and appearing in DARUMA Magazine, it is reproduced at this link, and includes a few of the Enami images that appeared in the more extensively illustrated paper version:

http://photoguide.jp/txt/T._Enami

(11) The information in Ono's great article was not added to, nor questions and speculations answered, until 2006, when Terry Bennett published his

OLD JAPANESE PHOTOGRAPHS - COLLECTORS DATA GUIDE.

http://www.old-japan.co.uk/book_ojp.html

This book contained the latest information on Enami in a several-page essay, and an extensive Stereoview Index entry --- both by Okinawa-based, American photographer Rob Oechsle.

Oechsle, a long-time fan and collector of Enami stereoviews, had amassed a pile of information on Enami (including many chunks already gathered by others). However, much of the data was filled with seeming contradiction and hard-to-reconcile oddities, lacking any key or catalyst to make sense of it all.

This was rectified in 2006, when, at the urging of London-based Terry Bennett, Oechsle finally succeeded in tracking down T. Enami's grandson in Yokohama. Keisuke Enami patiently proceeded to illuminate and correct the errors of past speculation, and provided interesting anecdotes, and basic biographical life-statistics for both his grandfather T. ENAMI, and his uncle (T. Enami's first son, TAMOTSU, who took over T. Enami's studio in 1929).

After graciously solving the enigmas surrounding T. Enami and his son Tamotsu, Keisuke succumbed to illness, passing away at age 75 on October 25th, 2008.

T-Enami.org/ continues to post illustrated additions and clarifications to the information already published in 2006.

(12) KJELD DUITS -- OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN

To quote from one of his many Websites, Kjeld Duits has "....lived in Japan since 1982 and consider this my home. I work as a journalist and photographer for several daily newspapers and radio stations, and over the years has worked for organizations like the BBC, NHK, Associated Press, The Times, Wired Magazine and many more...." http://ikjeld.com/en/about/

This multi-talented Webmaster and Photographer is well known among collectors of old Japanese photograph for his beautiful and educational OLD PHOTOS OF JAPAN Website that also contains searchable images by T. ENAMI.

http://oldphotosjapan.com/en

Further, his MEIJI SHOWA image archive Website has a growing section dedicated to NOBUKUNI ENAMI photographs. (As already mentioned in several places, NOBUKUNI ENAMI is T. ENAMI'S real given name). Although I have seen my share of Enami images over the years, Kjeld has managed to discover many important and historic Enami images that are totally new to me. Please enjoy the photos here, and contact Kjeld for any further information.

http://www.meijishowa.com/photography/?all&artist=Nobukuni Enami

(13) CALIFORNIA MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY in Riverside houses many beautiful, rare, and important collections of unique images spanning the history of photography. One of their many collections just happens to be the worlds largest gathering of original 19th and 20th Century stereoview negatives and original contact proof prints --- all with original photographer and/or publisher numbers and notations.

http://www.cmp.ucr.edu/

Known as the KEYSTONE-MAST COLLECTION, it is a massive gold mine of original 3-D negatives and ephemera from the KEYSTONE VIEW COMPANY that formerly resided in Meadville, Pennsylvania.

Although the collection once held over 2,000,000 glass negatives, the greater part were intentionally destroyed during the 1930s, decades before the collection was moved to California. However, the quarter-million or so negatives that remain are a vast treasure trove of classic, beautiful 3-D imagery. The reason I am listing this institution is a simple one : Hidden amongst the several thousand negatives and prints of old Japan are numerous works by T. Enami.

In 2009, with the kind help of curator Leigh Gleason, the process of identifying the T. Enami stereo-negatives had a good start. Over 100 of his stereoscopic images were identified on former T.W. INGERSOLL and C.H. GRAVES production negatives. The glass negative stocks of these stereoview publishers (and many companies like them) had been acquired long ago by the Keystone View Company.

Of course, none of Enami's views are identified as such on the prints and negatives, and like many other images in the collection, struggle for correct photographer attributions. In Enami's case, his images are now recognized by matching with verified Enami prints found in other collections, verified studio props, and by more interesting and definitive means such as checking the negatives for "septum markings" that are unique to Enami's cameras.

The "septum marking" key only applied to Enami's earlier work, and came as a great revelation while I was hunched over the old glass negatives as they sat on a light box in a research room of the archive.

Other negative series and markings revealed that a few views I once thought might be by Enami turned out to be by H.G. Ponting, and a few C.H. Graves Co. negatives that I thought were taken by Ponting turned out to be by T. Enami ! Further, some Underwood & Underwood Co. Japan views that had been nominally attributed to Ponting turned out instead to be by James Ricalton.

The value of the California Museum of Photography collection for both publishers needing classic 2-D and 3-D worldwide images, and those doing primary research in many areas of photographic history cannot be stressed enough.

Having only scratched the surface of what the Museum holds, there is much more work to be done, with potentially 100s more T. ENAMI negatives to be found. The picturesque results will be published when the Webmaster either (1) wins the Powerball Lottery, or (2) receives other grants or funding to finish the work.

California Museum of Photography --- a.k.a. "The Mother of all Stereoview Archives".

The extensive CMP "Mother Lode" is the only place in the world where original 3-D negatives of many classic T. ENAMI views can be found. Thanks to a few of his 3-D fans and photographer friends who obtained these glass copy negatives directly from Enami over 100 years ago (for use in their own published stereoview lines), we now have another window through which the early history of Japanese photography can be seen --- high-quality, professional stereo images taken from a Japanese point of view.

Please note that confirmation of the existence of Enami's negatives in the CMP occurred in late 2009. They are currently mixed in with the works of American, British, and Australian photographers, and have not yet been individually marked, cataloged, linked, listed, or filed away in any manner with T. ENAMI's name on them.

Revision of the CMP database to recognize Enami as the author of these scattered images will happen just as soon as the Webmaster stumbles on a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

In the meantime, the value of these original, high-resolution glass copy negatives has now became immeasurable. It must be remembered that Enami's studio and his entire 30-year archive of negatives was wiped from the face of the Earth in the Great Earthquake and firestorm of 1923.

Confirming the existence of these negatives over 85 years later is nothing short of amazing. After hiding quietly for so many years --- since at least the 1920s in the "Negative Archive" of Keystone's old headquarters in Meadville, Pa.; and now since the late 1970s in the climate-controlled vaults the CMP --- Enami artifacts once thought long gone have now risen from the ashes.

NOTE : February, 2011. Curator of Collections, Leigh Gleason discovers the world's only known copy of T. Enami's CATALOG OF LANTERN-SLIDES AND STEREOVIEWS containing the numbers and titles of over 1,100 of his classic Meiji-era 3-D images. See numbers (6) and (9) on page two of this Website.

http://www.cmp.ucr.edu/

(14) NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

During the 1920s and 30s, many of Enami's images from half-stereoviews were published in the yellow-bordered National Geographic Magazine. Almost forgotten as an alumni contributor, Enami was honored once again in 1988 by having one of his classic images used as the sole inset photograph on the First Edition cover of ODYSSEY - THE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY AT NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, a monumental work celebrating the best images from 100 years of the Geographic Photo Archives.

Today, a small selection of his many archived images are offered to the public through NATIONALGEOGRAPHICSTOCK.COM

Type ENAMI into the search box, and you will find a few of his well-liked images. Sometimes, other world explorers would come back from Japan with Enami photos, and contribute them to the National Geographic Society in their own names ! For example, if you type Beasley into the search box, you will see three more Enami b/w prints taken prior to 1923.

Please note that the NGS erroneously attributes the photos to T. Enami's son, Tamotsu. This understandable mistake is a remnant of 1988 scholarship that worked hard to come up with a first name for T. Enami, and in the midst of that, T. Enami was confused with his son who shared the same initial.

Here's a sampling of what you should come up with :

See an original trimmed contact proof sheet and finished stereoview of the above National Geographic Stock archive FARMING FAMILY photo HERE.

EXPLORE THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC STOCK ARCHIVES HERE :

http://www.nationalgeographicstock.com/ngsimages/explore/explore.jsf

(15) HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

http://hcl.harvard.edu/collections/digital_collections/etz_trudell.cfm

This distinctive library of Harvard University's undergraduate school houses the large ETZ-TRUDELL LANTERN SLIDES OF ASIA Collection. This fine assembly of more than 500 mostly Japanese images contains over 160 labeled T. ENAMI views, or, about 30 % of the collection.

25 of the slides are from Enami's S-number Series, made from his late Meiji-era stereoview negatives. Another 137 or so are those made post-1923 and labeled with his No.29 Benten Dori, Yokohama address. Of these later-produced slides, 45 are of Japanese scenes, the rest being images of other Asian countries such as Korea and the Philippines.

In addition to the above, there are other unlabeled images that can be attributed to T. Enami based on corroborating images found in the Rob Oechsle Collection (some which remain unpublished).

The remainder of the collection is composed of fine images published by T. TAKAKI, FUTABA, KIMBEI, K. OGAWA, and others.

In spite of ENAMI'S images forming a minority of the collection, the HCL curator / webmaster chose an Enami image of Lily Pads to illustrate the collection's Home Page, as seen on the screen grab below.

http://hcl.harvard.edu/collections/digital_collections/etz_trudell.cfm

The Harvard HOLLIS listing also lets you see 163 Enami-labeled views with the post-1929 BENTEN-DORI addtress labels. These include mostly JAPAN images (some by amateurs) as well as amateur images of Korea and elsewhere. True "T.Enami" images of Japan are mixed in with the lot, re-issued by his son after Enami's death.

http://discovery.lib.harvard.edu/?q=Enami

OTHER INSTITUTIONS

Many other University Libraries, public and private collections, and some dedicated Websites occasionally post selections of their material. As any new Enami content becomes known, I will post the links here.

A SIDE-NOTE ABOUT ENAMI'S TEACHER -- THE PHOTOGRAPHER K. OGAWA -- AND SHOLARLY ISSUES WITH HIS FIRST NAME FOR THOSE THAT HAVE AN ECLECTIC INTEREST IN THE ODD RABBIT TRAILS OF JAPANESE LINGUISTIC HISTORY

In an oblique way, The Kanagawa University's attribution of Enami's stereoviews to Felix Beato (see No.2 on the above list) is reminiscent of what was once a seeming endless parade of Western photo historians who, when confronted with hundreds of Japanese photos and photo-books imprinted with the name K. OGAWA, proceed to tell us --- on the pages of numerous Japanese Photo Histories published during the past several decades --- that the K. for Ogawa's first name stood for ISSHIN.

ISSHIN???

These authors might have been consulting with the bearded fortune teller seen in this T. Enami photograph to the left.

How the letter K was deemed to stand for a name beginning with the letter I --- when Ogawa was clearly telling us that his first name begins with a K --- is one of those unsolved mysteries of academia.

Although the "....K stands for ISSHIN..." anomaly has been around since the end of the 19th Century (and is discussed below), you would think that someone would have noticed the problem, and taken a moment to ask one of their Japanese colleagues or contacts to tell them how to pronounce Ogawa's first-name-characters using a K.

Before explaining what went wrong, let's settle the matter of what's right !

NOTE TO ALL WESTERN SCHOLARS OF JAPANESE PHOTOGRAPHY :

K. Ogawa (who once lived and studied in America, spoke English, and knew how the alphabet worked) provided --- on every photo mount and book imprint under his own hand --- a blatant hint as to how he pronounced and wrote the Japanese characters of his first name. And we have all seen it and know it.

That hint is the letter K...as in...K ! K. OGAWA ! OMG, yes...that looks like a K !

PLEASE right-click on the above thumbnails (one-by-one), and "view image" to be enlightened by three documents of the time, all addressed to K. Ogawa from officials representing the USA, THAILAND, and ITALY, thanking him for his wonderful photographs. Please note what is underlined in red, burn it into your brain, and from henceforth do not copy the work of other scholars who were once confused about such basic things as the letters of the Roman Alphabet.

And there you have it --- not only from K. Ogawa himself, but from those who knew him. His full name was KAZUMASA OGAWA.

So, where did modern photo-historians come up with ISSHIN instead of KAZUMASA ?

There are many possible reasons. I will show you one of them here (and leave others for later) because there are actual graphic documents to back up a hypothesis.

The whole ISSHIN thing might have gotten started way back in 1893 at the Chicago Expo, where Ogawa submitted several of his nicer photos for display. He ended up getting an award certificate with his name duly inscribed [Right].

No one knows who the inscriber was, what he was copying from, or who was asked to provide a translation.

Whoever he was, he decided to ignore the K of Ogawa's first name (thinking it was a mistake?), or, if unacquainted with Ogawa's K imprint, translated directly from the Japanese using something called onyomi.

Onyomi is a hybrid, Sino-Japanese reading of Japanese characters that approximates a Chinese pronunciation with a Japanese hillbilly accent. The end result would be ISSHIN for KAZUMASA on the Award Certificate.

The same mistake was repeated (or copied --- by the same judging panel?) in 1904 at the Louisiana Purchase Expo, where K. Ogawa received the GOLD MEDAL award for his "Colored Photographs" [Below]. After that, nobody in the West questioned the oddity, but, to the contrary, continued to repeat it right through to the 21st Century.

If the original "linguist" had been consistent, he could also have written the onyomi SHOUSEN for OGAWA, transforming K. OGAWA into ISSHIN SHOUSEN.

In any event, I'm sure that Kazumasa Ogawa was thrilled to get the award, and forgiving of the now-forgotten Westerner's odd attempt at saying (and writing) his name.

Fortunately, a few authors and authorities have recently been getting it right, including the on-line WIKIPEDIA which also acknowledges the pseudo-scholarly "OGAWA ISSHIN" that is still floating around out there.

I only bring these things up because K. OGAWA was T. ENAMI'S teacher, and he figures in Enami's long-running life and story.

With some over-lap, more Enami images may be seen at the Enami"Light Box" section of Alan Griffiths Luminous-Lint website HERE .

The very first photo you see when entering the T. Enami Website homepage is his photo of three boys playing with a boat on a small canal in Yokohama. Here is the full stereoview version published in the USA. At the top is a real-photo version first published ca.1903 by THE INGERSOLL VIEW COMPANY, and below is the SEARS, ROEBUCK & COMPANY lithograph version first published in 1905.

BELOW : A ca.1898-99 T. Enami 3-D view that sold well in the USA from 1900 on. Considered more humorous than offensive, Victorian prudery was no barricade to allowing the image a place in many household collections of stereoviews. From 1900 through 1907, Griffith & Griffith published hundreds of T. Enami stereoviews on their own mounts. I have included a half-stereoview crop, framed in gold, ready to be hung on the wall of your favorite Family Room or Church Foyer.

BUTT

NAKED

JAPAN !!

For all of you spiritual, discriminating men and women who have developed a taste for fine images depicting the lovely human form made in the image of God himself, here is a bare-assed Japanese Priest taking a bucket- bath over at the local well. And a very fine well it is.

Early cabinet mount imprint from ca.1898-1905. One of many to be found.

Please note that this Website is not a formal, scholarly presentation of the information currently known about Enami. Some subjects are not covered, while other subjects of possible interest or importance receive only scant attention. Where things are delved into in greater detail, the commentary does not included footnotes, and only occasionally mentions primary sources.

Why is that ? Well, because...

...A book about Enami and his Meiji-era photographic world is currently being written that will include all of the history, stories, and more that is missing from this Website. Sources, footnotes, and a comprehensive bibliography that form the basis for this on-line "snapshot" will also be provided.

Because the publication date is not yet known (and could take another year or two) the purpose of this transient Website is to provide an immediate free source of general information to augment that which has already been published by Terry Bennett in 2006.

Since Bennett's books have already formally introduced T. Enami to the world, I have nothing better to do here than (1) add some new information that has come to light since 2006, and (2) show you a huge pile of Enami's photos (which Bennett's book could not do), while continuing work on the book which will be extensively dedicated to T. Enami.

The Web-gallery and data provided here does not in any way take the wind out of the book currently being written. As for pictures, this is one Website where no one can say there are not enough photos to look at !

Here and there, you will find several scattered links and written leads to help you find other information on your own. In the meantime, 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. T. Enami, ca.1910. From a Lantern slide.

The Tea Pickers. Ca.1898-1907 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 PAGEHERE.

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, Negishi Honmoku Flats, two miles south of Yokohama.

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

MANY PHOTOGRAPHERS AND PUBLISHERS USED ENAMI'S STEREOVIEWS IN PART OR IN WHOLE. FOR GEORGE ROSE ABOVE, ENAMI'S IMAGES FORMED ONLY A LESSER PART OF HIS JAPAN SERIES. FOR MANY OTHERS, INCLUDING INGERSOLL AND SEARS, ENAMI'S IMAGES MADE UP 100% OF THEIR ENTIRE SETS OF JAPAN STEREOVIEWS.

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

November 1st, 2011

Dear Visitor,

On the two main pages of this Website, you will find --- with some minor over-lap --- over 300 randomly placed photos. With some exceptions, they are mostly from negatives taken during the 1892-1907 peak period of Enami's ALBUMEN PRINT and STEREOVIEW days. Enami published catalogs for these commercial formats, and included LANTERN-SLIDES produced from reductions or crops of the original negatives.

Illustrations on this Website that fall outside of this "Enami Catalog provanance" are several black-and-white images from the pre-1923 mid-Taisho era --- all of which come from a group of photos that were listed in an early catalog by one H. SUITO of Tokyo. While one American magazine from the early 1920s credits SUITO as the source, in 1925, Enami's friend and helper WALTER WESTON implied that Enami was the one who really took them, and many have been discovered on Enami-labeled slide mounts.

The Jury is still out on the true authorship of these images, but I have included them as a valid part of the "Enami Story" for those who like unsolved photo mysteries --- and who might someday provide a definative answer.

Most everything here has been scanned directly from the original 2-D and 3-D photographs captured by Enami with his studio and field cameras. In addition (on the second page) some comparative photos by his contemporaries are posted in the section that discusses the 1897 "Brinkley Sets".

Wait. Go back. Did I say....

"Over 300 old Japanese photographs are shown here" ?

YES !

On these two long-scrolling Web pages, you will receive the visual equivalent of more than six nice Souvenir Photo Albums from the late Meiji era ! On top of that, a few photos of old ads, graphics, and mount imprints are posted as well. Let no one say this Website skimps on giving you old photos of Japan to look at, study, and use !

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 hundreds not seen on this Enami Website. Most are available for inspection at larger sizes.

All of these photos --- both here and on flickr.com --- are CREATIVE COMMONS licensed for bloggers and Webmasters who might want or need for illustration purposes. Of course, there are also those creative types who like to extract portions of the images for making cards and collages. Please help yourself to the image (or images) you need for your project, art class, or homework assignment.

Also at the flickr site you will also find over 1,000 additional old pictures of Japan by other Meiji and Taisho-era photographers. They are scattered amongst these titled SETS, and you will have to dig for them ! Much of what you will see is quite beautiful, and none of it exists today as you see it in the photos. One set titled THEN AND NOW shows a few of the changes that have taken place over the past century of more --- some of it quite drastic.

OLD BERMUDA

You will also find an interesting and colorful set of OLD BERMUDA, printed and hand-tinted in the 1930 by T. Enami's son TAMOTUSU ENAMI, for a client who seemed to hail from that island paradise in the mid-Atlantic.

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 ACTIONS button over the photos, wher you can chose at the VIEW ALL SIZES link.

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; there might be others who want to know where the pictures can be found for their own use or further study. (continued after photo)

BUCKETS n' BRUSHES n' BROOMS, OH MY ! [Enami view no.584]. This a ca.1892-96 hand-colored T. ENAMI albumen print was used as a full-page, real-photo illustration in Captain Brinkley's magnificent 1897 publication JAPAN - DESCRIBED AND ILLUSTRATED BY THE JAPANESE. Enami's neighbor, KOZABURO TAMAMURA, published a similar view of the same man and his broom cart, photographed on a different day. In the Enami view above, you will notice that the vendor is looking right at you. In Tamamura's photo, he is looking off to the left. In any case, a great study by either photographer.

All told (on flickr.com and elsewhere) that'swell over 750 verified T. Enami views (and a few studio imprints)to keep you covered for a while.

For those bothered or concerned about the "disorganized" nature of this site, please return to the very top of the page where I address this in the opening paragraph.

Untill the next revision, please enjoy the pics, and I hope you can glean n interesting tid-bit or two from the text and captions.

Cheers !

Rob Oechsle, Webmaster.

November, 2011

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.

Enami catered mainly to the local foreign community and transient tourists. His catalog advertised portrait-taking services, and examples showing different mount and imprint styles are many.

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

The Clam Digger. Ca.1915-22 Gelatin Silver Print (also in H. Suito Catalog)

THE DUST BUSTER. A 1920s Water Wagon Works to Keep 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 From a Lantern Slide. Also published as large albumen.

Ca. 1892-95. 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.

Kids at Kitano Temple in Kyoto Ca.1898 - 1907

REFRESHING AND SURPRISING

For those already familiar with the work of early Japanese Photographers such as Shimooka, Kimbei, K. Ogawa, Esaki, Kajima, Suzuki, Tamamura (and many others covered by Japanese Photo-Historiespublished in the West), the material presented on this site should provea 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 theJapanese image with a wide range of new materialto 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 for 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 like never before. However, the photos 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 FISH, AND SPIT OUT THE BONES

The imagesand textare 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 are incapable of dealing with treasure-laden randomness, and need it all laid out in perfect order before something can be learned or gleaned 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, and makes you slosh through endless puddles of unedited but data-filled text !)

Enjoy your discoveries...and all the photos !

Meeting at the Gate. Photographed ca.1898 at the entrance to a Japanese Inn near the GenkyuGardens 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. Man and Horse on the Lone Pine Road. Vignette from a half-Stereoview.This is the only image on this site that is not a confirmed Enami image. It is included here as an "attributed" Enami view. It was found in a composite set of stereoviews having other confirmed T. Enami images, and conforms to his style. It will remain in the "attributed" category until confirmed...which may be never !

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 the above stereoview. Most all of Enami's stereoviews can stand alone as excellent 2-D prints and lantern-slides.

THE WEBSITE 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 albumens, gelatin silver prints, and lantern-slides.

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, at least five different scanners and three different digital cameras were used for the scan / copy work. Slide copying was done against different light boxes of different color temperature. 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 someuniform 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 1870s through the 1890s,Japanese photographers offered manyversions ofthese generic "Sleeping Geisha" images fortheir title lists. To Westerners, the title implies that the day is done, dinner is over, the sun long set, and all visitors havegone home.

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.

Yet, as seen BELOW, during Enami's earlier days, he photographed such "sleeping" subjects utilizing a full "sleeping-during-the-daytime" skylight illumination from top to bottom. Enami was, of course, following the lighting styles already established by earlier photographers, including his famous teacher K.Ogawa. He soon got out of that mode, and aimed for the more realistic lighting as seen in the stereoview above.

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

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 intwo relatedscholarly 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.

ABOVE : Ca.1898 "Drying Tea Leaves". Enami's Japanese made Lantern-slide produced from the same 3-D negative used in American to make the BELOW well-worn "Boiling Tea Leaves" stereoview. The difference in quality between Enami's first generation "positive print on glass" and what is probably a second-generation American print on paper is quite evident here. Also notice the irreconcilable difference between the two captions. The slide caption is correct.

The abridged and certified MAIN STORY of T. Enami found HEREis 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 the Japanese language;

(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) Enami's original [English] Catalog of Print and Lantern-Slide numbers and titles.

(5) direct observation of a large amount the T. Enamiimages listed in the above catalog.

(6)imprinted commercial images --- such as stereoviews, lantern slides, private studio portraits carryincarrying his imprint, and

(7) uncataloged* un-titled, un-imprinted images verified as his by unique studio props found in the images.

(8) Enami's original price lists that included all printing paper types and formats offered by his Yokohama studio.

* 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 the above 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.1898-1900 Studio Shenanigans. Vignette from a half-stereoview.

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

UNTRANSPOSED STEREOVIEW CONTACT PROOFS FROM ENAMI'S YOKOHAMA STUDIO

Top stereoview may be seen as a hand colored slide amongst the images posted below.

You might be interested in seeing some more annotated, stereoview proof-sheets from Enami's original Meiji-era studio that had been safely storedoutside ofJapanprior 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 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 that lists 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 in 2006. 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 onthe statue by taking amore 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 wasfairly 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 writtenby both Japanese and foreign visitors on the metallic walls of the inner belly. .

Into the Mist. Lone Pilgrim ona MountainTrail. 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 HEREon 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'sOld 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 viewsa 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 errorcommon among all pre-2007 resources where Enami is mentionedwas quickly corrected in Bennett's own Data Guide after Enamis 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 abovelantern-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" isone of over twenty T. Enami images used by Burton Holmes to illustrate the Japan portion of his best-selling, multi-volume Travelogueseries. The earlybook 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 wherethe old artists and engravers were being called on to prepare half-tone plates from photographs.(Such an imageappearing a"wood engraving" would also most likely havethe background highly simplified, or removed entirely).

After many years, theTravelogue publisher erased allphotographer credit lines from beneath the images. This eventually led some later publications thatused 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. 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 sitewere collectedfromsources 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 thetext 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),thequality and depth of Enami's stereoview compositions will speak for themselves.

For what it's worth, you might be interested to know thatwith 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 onlyfour lines to himthe 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 illustratedMAIN STORY PAGE on T. Enami.

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

Vignette of a stereoview image posted further above.

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.

END OF PAGE ONE. PAGE TWO BEGINS HERE.

What We Do

WHAT WE DON'T DO

With apologies, this not a commercial enterprise selling T. Enami coffee mugs, T-shirts, or mouse pads!