And a General Practitioner of Every Other Format Popular in his Day

 

         

The Artist himself ! Circa 1898 self portrait of T. Enami in his Yokohama studio.  This is one of at least two known variants originally photographed in 3-D. The other is at the top of this page. Photographer Herbert Ponting sent this and many other Enami images back to the USA to be published along with his own stereoviews taken in 1901 and early 1902. Good self-portraits of Japanese photographers from the Meiji era are hard to come by; this is certainly one of the better ones. If you have entered this Website via a direct link to this page, you can can also see a formal portrait of Enami taken about ten years later, at the top of the homepage HERE --- as well as numerous other vintage Enami views below it.

                
                           ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
 
         The following story is an entirely different presentation and discussion of T. Enami than that found in the Searching for T. Enami biographical essay, and the Index of Japan-Related Stereoview Photographers and Publishers, which formed a part of the larger contents of Terry Bennett's Old Japanese Photographs: Collectors' Data Guide (London: Quaritch, 2006). Both of those contributions were written by the webmaster at Bennett's request. I had been a long-time fan of T. Enami's beautiful stereoviews, and Bennett also knew I had been collecting and researching old Japanese stereoviews in general for nearly thirty years. Yet without his kindly prodding me to write down in some encyclopedic form what I knew on the subject, I would not have dug as deep, nor been led to discover things about Enami that surprised even me. 
          While the information presented on this site lacks the more comprehensive "behind the scenes" material found in Bennett's Data Guide, especially the image and data-gathering process for T. Enami, it does complement other important historical and technical information found there. Bennett's recent books are highly recommended for the wealth of material they contains on literally 100s of photographers like Enami.
          Although complete acknowledgments for the Enami story are given in Bennett's book, four names should be attached to the Web version offered here: T. Enami’s grandson, Keisuke and his wife Ryoko; and great-grandson Hiroaki and wife Chiemi. As I write this, all are continuing residents of Yokohama. It is because of their kindness and cooperation in supplying the family history of Nobukuni and Tamotsu (clearing up the confusion of names and relationships that had plagued researchers for many years), that the story of T. Enami could be correctly written.           Any errors in the commentary, and the inevitable typos that will be found are those of my own, and not those who kindly contributed.

Ca.1898 Group of Babysitters. Classic Enami image used by countless publishers around the world in both 2-D and 3-D versions. The common Underwood version seen below (position #3 in their copyright 1904, 100-view set) is a variant showing central girl facing the camera.

         
 
 
                   
                                                PREFACE
 
                  
          T. Enami (1859-1929) was one of Japan's most successful photographers during the Meiji and Taisho eras. While offering many of the same services and productions as his contemporaries, he also engaged in other activities that made him unique. Further, Enami was the only Japanese professional photographer known to have worked in all artistic and commercial formats of his time.
          He was one of  only a few photographers born in Japan's old Edo period to successfully grow out of his roots as a traditional maker of the classic, large-format "Yokohama Shashin" albums, finding new techniques and modes of expression that were ahead of his time.
          Over the years, he became a living link between the style of the early Meiji-period masters, and the sensibilities of the "Taisho Art" pictorial movement in the early 20th Century.

   Hard working, hands on, and a photographer's photographer in every sense of the word, Enami never retired until death itself put a cap on his lens at the age of seventy. When his ashes were finally laid to rest in a small Buddhist cemetery in Tokyo, he left behind a body of work, both artistic and documentary, that captured the people's life and times, and the changing landscapes through three eras of Japanese history.

         His last images, culminating with scenes of Japanese society during the first four years of the Showa era under Emperor Hirohito, were a far cry from the sensibilities and style that launched his career during the early years of the Meiji era. This interesting evolution with the camera added further dimension to all that he did.
          Finally, while there are plenty of old Japanese photographers including Enami that provide us with enough biography and graphic material to picture their lives as artists and documentarians, Enami is outstanding as one of the few who also provides us with an important window for understanding the changing tastes and business side of Photography in a country that had only recently learned to connect with the world at large.

 

          
                                                                                                                                                 Ca.1898 Three Geisha and Kimono in Profile.      From a Stereoview.                                                                      

                      Ca.1898. After the Snowfall. Winter in Yokohama.     From a stereoview.

 
Concerning his presence in the Far East, while many Japanese photographers forsook their homeland to relocate and operate studios in other lucrative, foreign ports of Asia, Enami was the only Japanese photographer to remain based in Japan while simultaneously operating foreign franchise studios—two in the Philippines, and one in Hong Kong.

Concerning stereoviews, although many Japanese photographers and publishers including Enami sold 3-D images to native customers and tourists in Japan, only Enami distributed his stereoscopic images to overseas publishers—mainly in North America, Europe, and Australia.

In connection with this, Enami would also lay hold of another distinction—being the first Japanese photographer to make lantern-slides from half-stereoviews as a standard product. Enami apparently undertook this activity before the American companies of Underwood, H.C. White, and Keystone started doing the same.

In terms of production values and care for the "stereo window", no other photographer or publisher in Japan ever exceeded the quality of Enami's stereoviews—especially those that were hand-tinted.

 

 

Although Enami passed away in 1929, his studio continued selling his photographs until 1945. By that time, more people in the world had seen photographs of Japan by T. Enami than they did those of the more famous Beato, Stillfried, Farsari, Ogawa, Kimbei, and Tamamura combined. The energetic Enami accomplished most of this and more from his small but busy studio at No.9 Benten Street in Yokohama. He was, in all respects, truly a photographers' photographer.                                

In spite of the above description of such a prolific and honored artist, until recently, mention of Enami’s name, and examples of his work have been quietly missing from the many English language books about early Japanese photography. However, when eminent Japanese photo-historian Saito Takio published his important Yokohama listing of sixty-three notable Japanese photographers in Meiji no Nihon (Yokohama: Yurindo, 1990), it was T. Enami who shared the spotlight with Tamamura Kozaburo and Kusakabe Kimbei as one of the top three Meiji-era photographers in terms of lines of data and biographical sources given by Saito. 

Amazingly, although Professor Saito was familiar with the images of Tamamura and Kimbei, he had never seen an identified Enami photograph. It was simply the amount of written sources mentioning Enami that allowed Saito to place him—photos unseen—on the podium with those other two well-known figures.
               

                                
 

 As with Saito's dilemma of having only Enami's name via business directory data, while possessing absolutely no photographic evidence for the man, this circumstance reflected the situation of other archives holding Japanese photographic works.  With rare exception, institutions and research collections with dedicated Asian holdings were lacking any identified, meaningful, or organized body of Enami’s work. On the other hand, popular Photo-Histories, exhibitions, and "coffee table books" about old Japan continued to rehash the productions of the usual “gang of six”—Beato, Stillfried, Ogawa, Kimbei, Farsari, and Tamamura—working their images to the bone. This was not entirely the fault of collectors or curators. Original imprints and publication credits sometimes did accompany Enami's images, but, as with many of the early artists, Enami’s work was (and still is) often found without these helpful provenances. In one extreme case, an entire gallery of his views was published in a press run of millions, but with the photo credit lines all given to the wrong photographer!

 
It is hoped that the short history presented here, along with Bennett’s Data Guide, will act as an aid in identifying Enami’s images. In due time, with his work understood and appreciated, perhaps Enami will also get rehashed and worked to the bone—as a long overdue member of a newly enlarged “gang of seven”, and as one who exercised his love of photography far beyond the roots he shared with those other gentlemen of greater photographic fame and fortune.

 

 

            

                              
          
 
                    THE STORY BEGINS.
  
                    EARLY DAYS
 

T. Enami was born Enami Nobukuni on 17 February, 1859 in the city of Tokyo (then called Edo or Yedo). Like many of his well-known contemporaries, Enami was an "old timer" who came into the world during the Bakumatsu era, when the Shogun and various military vassals ruled Japan. Men wore their hair up in top-knots, "rickshaws" were yet to be seen on the streets, and the Meiji-era restoration of the Emperor was still almost ten years away.
          Auspiciously, 1859 was also the year Yokohama opened its port to the world, and when Pierre Rossier arrived to photograph the first commercial images of Japan—a set of 25 stereoviews for the British firm of Negretti & Zambra.

 
Virtually nothing is known of Enami’s early years. As a young boy, he probably never imagined he would see three Emperors ascend to the Chrysanthemum throne, or that he would spend most of his life with a camera, capturing the people and places of Japan during three of the four tumultuous eras his long life would touch on. However, at some point he was drawn to the world of photography, and that's where we are again able to pick up the story.

 

         T. ENAMI and K. OGAWA

          Enami appears on the scene in his mid-to-late twenties as a student of the pioneering photographer and collotypist,  K.Ogawa, eventually becoming one of his assistants. It is possible that Enami was the camera operator behind some of the images credited to Ogawa's studio, as he had already developed a skilled technique by the time he launched out on his own.
          The above description of Enami as a Student of Ogawa naturally brings to mind a picture of an "Elder Master" taking a "Young Novice" under his wing. But in fact, Ogawa was born in 1860, making Enami his senior by a year! Further, they were both still in their 20s, and their relationship probably hinged on a different spirit than that which would have been established under the strictures of the old Bakumatsu era.

It is not surprising to find that the already "internationalized" and younger Ogawa (who had developed a degree Western sensibilities during his time as a student of photography in America) had no qualms about teaching his "older brother" Enami both the art and rapidly changing science of photography. It is possible that he sensed from the start that "latecomer" Enami had something of his own artistic sentiments and business sense. One might also wonder if there was already an established friendship existing between the two. In any event, the elder was taught by the younger, and in the end, although their creative paths took different directions, their eventual professional equality led to a life-long cooperation and friendship.

After leaving Tokyo to set up his own commercial studio in Yokohama, and his talent and reputation on solid footing, Enami continued to meet over the years with his "younger brother and teacher", as well as with the many other professional acquaintances who formed a part of the Ogawa Alumni Association.        

Strangely, Ogawa and Enami would also share the same year of death -- their long, remarkable, and intertwined lives would coincidentally come to a close in 1929.
          
                                                                                               
 
        A NEW STUDIO and a NEW NAME
 
        At age thirty-three, Enami moved from Tokyo to Yokohama, establishing his first studio at No.9 Benten-Dori (Benten Street) in April 1892. Benten Street was one of Japan's most famous international shopping districts, and a virtual "Photographers Row" of famous studio names, including the location of Kusakabe Kimbei's first studio.
         It is not known how Enami gained his prime spot along this important thoroughfare, or how he financed the establishment of his fledgling studio with all of the building modifications, props, and equipment needed. Without discounting the possibility that Enami had some independent wealth to rely on, it is possible to speculate that the highly successful K. Ogawa had a part in sponsoring the launch of his former student. In any case, the timing and location was right, and Enami appears to have been successful from the start.
 
      
Although his given name (first name) was Nobukuni, he began his business by taking the professional “trade name” of T. Enami—not N. Enami. It appears that the T stood for Toshi, an alternate "name reading" of Nobu, the first Chinese character of his name. The name T. Enami, and all studio-related advertising, documents and ephemera would be done in English, or "Romanized Japanese" using the alphabet. Only in the Yokohama phone books and business directories would his studio appear listed in the Japanese language—using his real given name Nobukuni.
 
    
Six months after the studio opened, his first son Tamotsu was born. Tamotsu would eventually take over the T. Enami Photographic Studio in 1929. Later researchers confronted with these two names thought that Tamotsu Enami was the full name of T. Enami, resulting in the father’s photographs being attributed to his son. However, the father and son shared the T only by coincidence. To further complicate matters, Enami’s first wife (mother of Tamotsu) died soon after the birth of Tamotsu. Enami later remarried, and his second wife bore him a son whom they named Tomojiro—another T !      

          All that can be said of Enami's love for the letter T is that it led many photo-researchers astray.
 
             
          Philbert Ono of the PhotoGuide Japan website and co-author Edward A. Wright were the first to publish comments about the T. Enami name dilemma. Colorful and informative, the article first appeared in the Japanese magazine Daruma in 1997. Phil has also written a concise, one-page Enami "snapshot" combining data from this site, with his own interesting speculations about why Enami might have been so keen on naming his sons with the letter T.  Phil also shows the various Japanese characters used to write these names. See his concise statement on Enami, followed on the same page by the original Ono/Wright 1997 illustrated Daruma article HERE.
 

 
                                           EARLY WORK
               AND ASSOCIATIONS
      
          Enami's studio at No.9 was a few doors down from the already-famous Tamamura Kozaburo located at No.2. Enami’s senior by three years, Tamamura had opened his first studio in Tokyo at age eighteen, and had moved to Benten Street nine years before Enami arrived.

Tamamura and Enami shared some similarities of experience and situation. Both of them hailed from Tokyo. Like contemporaries R. Esaki and S. Kajima, they had gained their original training under Japanese photographers.

Enami, as already mentioned, had trained under K. Ogawa, while Tamamura had learned from G. Kanemaru, whose studio was in the Asakusa district.

His purely native apprenticeship contrasted sharply with the rest of the Bakumatsu-era-born fraternity of cameramen—such as Ueno, Shimooka, Uchida, Kimbei, and K. Ogawa—who had received partial or complete instructions in photography under Western teachers both at home and abroad.

          

       THE "BRINKLEY SETS"

               OF 1897

 

          Tamamura had not been a student of K. Ogawa, yet he was drawn into his profession circle, and seemed to have an "honorary" place in Ogawa's "Alumni Association". Like Enami, Tamamura maintained a close and friendly relationship with Ogawa, and apparently, with Kimbei as well.

          The camera craft of these four men would occasionally be found together in both domestic and international works of photographic art—the most well known being the multi-volume Brinkley sets of Japan: Described and Illustrated by the Japanese (Millet: Boston, Various editions 1897-1910). In these large folio volumes it is unfortunate that only K. Ogawa is given distinct credit for his photographic contributions--the beautifully colored colloytpe frontispiece images of flowers.

However, it was the unnamed Tamamura who many photo histories tell us was responsible for organizing the effort to supply what several sources say eventually amounted to over one million (!) hand-colored albumen photos, all to be used over a several-year period as tipped-in illustrations for the body of the various Brinkley editions—the better ones requiring 260 of these real photos to be pasted in by hand.

          Although documentation exists that seems to cleary certify the fact that Tamamura was really the one stuck with the huge job of filling the order, based on the images that are now found in the Brinkley sets, I question whether Tamamura was the one who chose the images. This question is alluded to below in a discussion about one of the images --- an autumn park scene along the Takinogawa (river) in Tokyo.  Photo historian Denise Bethel has also published remarks that imply the choice of photos was partly in the hands of an American publishers representative who visited Japan for the purpose. This will all be expounded on in hard copy at a later date.

         In any case, the photos were decided on, and Tamamura became a very busy man filling the "order of a lifetime"

         Beside an army of over 350 sun-printers and colorists, Tamamura also enlisted the help of a few better-known photographers to supply images in addition to his own. Along with K. Ogawa, Tamamura, Kimbei (and surely others), Enami's photographs form a substantial part of both the larger matted images, as well as the smaller views pasted directly onto the text pages. Interestingly, the leading full-size matted photograph in all of the sets—the volume-one scene of Mt. Fuji with boaters in the foreground—is by T.Enami, being one of his earliest 1892-95 images.  Here it is below, showing part of the green paper mount.

               

ABOVE: MOUNT FUJI AS SEEN FROM KASHIWABARA. By T. Enami. Volume 1, First matted large albumen photograph in all of the ten-volume editions of Brinkley's 1897 JAPAN - DESCRIBED AND ILLUSTRATED BY THE JAPANESE. For use in the Brinkley sets, the title and Enami's own image number 310 were trimmed from the bottom margin of the photo. The database for the Nagasaki University Library says that this photo was taken by Hanbei Muzuno. This is a common misunderstanding due to the fact that Mizuno converted some of T. Enami's images (as well as the images of others) into Gold Lacquer Photographs for album covers and display pieces. These conversions are backstamped with Mizuno's wetstamp, thus, the confusion. See the Nagasaki University image HERE. 

BELOW: The same print as seen above, yet given different treatment for placement in a 50-view tourist album for sale directly from Enami's studio in Yokohama. The red-purple hue on the summit is a fine touch not seen one even the best of Kimbei's views of Mt. Fuji. This color is reflects a fleeting moment that occasionally appears on the slopes of Fuji, and is discussed HERE.

      On a technical note, although there were many "Editions" produced by the publisher, the "better sets" all contained 60 large, hand-tinted and matted albumen prints such as the Mt. Fuji scene above, and 200 smaller "postcard"sized hand-tinted albumen prints tipped into spaces prepared for them on the printed text pages. However, during production of the sets, many images were "switched out" using photos made from both (1) close variants, and (2) totally different negatives having content that conformed to the fixed captions already pre-printed on the pages.  

     Except for only one paragraph in the Introduction that was altered between many of the editions, the main body of the text was printed from the same page blocks for all of the editions. For the cheaper halftone editions, only the captions were changed, and halftone photos were placed within the same spot that had been formerly left blank in the better editions to allow for the pasting in of the hand-colored, albumen photographs.

     I have personally seen and counted the hand-tinted albumen images in about ten different complete sets (and there are many more Editions that I have not examined). Making comparisons where I could, I discovered that 333 different negatives were variously used to fill the 260 positions reserved for the photographic illustrations. If we include the 192 new photographs (out of 198 total) used to make the black and white half-tone illustrations for the cheaper editions, the total image stock used by the publisher rises to 530 photos ! This number can only be expected to grow as more sets are carefully compared.

     To date, more than 40 of these large and small images have been identified as having come from the studio of T. Enami, making his work the largest body of verified, photographer-attributed images in the "Brinkley sets". This number is also expected to rise as more of Enami's verified images become available to match with the Brinkley content.

[NOTE : With the help of collector Tom Burnett, I am currently trying to pin down as many KIMBEI views as possible, beyond the the ones already known. Although many Kimbei views in the sets are already known to collectors, further identification of some of his more obscure, seldom-seen images will possibly (probably?) raise his known contributions to a number rivaling or exceeding the prominent position now held by Enami].

 

    A "SWITCHED OUT" VARIANT PHOTOGRAPH, AND QUESTIONS RAISED BY COMPARING THE SIMILAR IMAGES OF MANY PHOTOGRAPHERS

     Although Tamamura usually --- and wrongly --- gets the credit for all or most of the images used in the Brinkley sets (in spite of the fact that "in photo" identified KIMBEI KUSAKABE images were also used), the publisher in Boston sometimes made choices that switched one image for that of another photographer.

     Shown below is an example of a switched out (or traded) image.  This image by a photographer that is still unknown to me appears as a smaller, tipped in albumens in most of the better Brinkley sets :

                  [View of Oji in Tokyo, along the Takinogawa -- The "Waterfall River"]

       However, for the "Best" Emperor's Edition (limited to 75 sets), the publishers pulled the rather drab, boring view seen above, and replaced it with T. ENAMI'S version of the same location ---  number 295 "MAPLES OJI TOKYO" seen here :

                              MAPLES OJI TOKIO by T. Enami  Catalog No.295    

     Taken on a different date, and from a slightly different standpoint, it offered a surprising burst of sunlight through the Maple leaves. 

     Other such substitutions may be seen throughout many of the better Brinkley sets, bringing the total to over 330 different albumen images used to variously fill the 260 captioned spaces reserved for them throughout the ten volumes. 

     However, such image substitution begs some serious questions.  If Tamamura was really the one that chose (edited) the photo content, and appointed other photographers to print up their best or most interesting shots, why did Tamamura supply boring images, when more interesting material was widely available ? Further, why would he enlist another photographer to supply an image when he, Tamamura, had a better one taken by himself ?

      Here is Tamamura's own stock image, which was never used. Compare it with the first drab image above, and render your own judgment :

       TAKINOGAWA NEAR TOKYO.   By K. Tamamura. No.988 (Cornell Print may be enlarged HERE)

    Further, if Tamamura hated Enami's burst of sunlight, and wanted three girls on the bridge instead of two, he could have also gone with the FARSARI Studio image seen below, which arguably has a better composition --- grabbing the same tree that Enami grabbed on the right (but without the burst of sunlight) and a better foreground :

                                      MAPLES (AUTUMN).    By A. Farsari. No. H43

    The coloring done by the Farsari Studio is, well...very colorful. But, what about the illustrious KIMBEI ?  Many Kimbei images were also used in the Brinkley sets, and he was the real Master of them all. Did he ever take a shot of the above scene? He sure did. Not once, but twice! Here's the first one :

                     Autumn View of Maples, Oji.     By K. Kimbei. Catalog No.637

       What? This is the best Kimbei could do?  These images are all starting to look alike, and, based on what I've seen so far, would personally prefer Enami's sunburst through the maple leaves (or Farsari's attack of color) to what Tamamura, or even the great Kimbei has provided.

       Apparently, Kimbei (along with one other photographer) came to the same conclusion.  I will show you the results of both photographers, but first, Kimbei's second go-around at re-capturing this location.

       Possibly feeling a need to depart from the "sameness" he found himself sharing with others concerning this image (except for Enami's sunburst view, which was probably taken later), and to keep his reputation intact as the "elder artist", Kimbei dragged himself back to this spot and re-evaluated the scene.

       Kimbei decided to move his camera back a few more feet to include a tree on the left, and placed a Geisha in the foreground as well.  The resulting layered depth to the same distant bridge --- while sacrificing the prominence of what was supposed to be the main subject of "Bridge over a Pond" --- made for a much more interesting shot :

                   AUTUMN VIEW OF MAPLES, OJI TOKIO.   By K. Kimbei. Catalog No.723

         Concerning all of the above images, I regret to say that none of the photographers --- including Enami ---  took advantage of the foreground staging area......except for two of the old Masters, Kimbei Kusakabe, and Seibei Kajima.

        Kajima moved his camera back even farther than Kimbei's standpoint, and took the below photo with a Geisha placement remarkably similar to Kimbei's shot. I will leave it up to your own artistic sense as to whom took the better view :

                      AUTUMN VIEW OF MAPLES, OJI, TOKIO.   By S. Kajima No.399

         Interestingly, T. Enami would become a sort of "Kimbei of Stereoviews". As Kimbei (and Kajima) did in the above photos, Enami would do in 3-D --- backing off from the main subject in order to include foreground material that other stereographers would ignore.

         However, when it came to the old "classic" albumen prints made for the tourist albums, it is obvious that the elder and more experienced photographers still knew how"strut their stuff" among their younger contemporaries.

        While looking through the many different editions of the beautiful Brinkley sets, I continue to wonder why the "better" or "best" cataloged works of the Yokohama and Tokyo photographers --- including the more interesting works by Enami --- were not used to better effect.

        To Enami's credit, he did what the others shown above did not do. Enami returned with a stereo camera to capture the bridge and surrounding scene from many angles, giving us an accurate, three-dimemtional grasp of what the place really looked like over 100 years ago.

 

                               * * * * * * * *

 

MORE OF ENAMI'S EARLY WORK FOUND IN THE BRINKLEY SETS

 

ABOVE: One of many ca 1892-1895 Enami views that were tipped into the various 1897 editions of Brinkley's monumental, multi-volume Japan sets. In sharp contrast to the freedom of his later work, much of his earlier studio images such as this followed the conventional line in themes, props, poses. Once Enami got hooked on the stereoview format, he began to loosen up, and his images began evolving to take advantage of the new possibilities provided by a real world with true depth. Although taking to 3-D like the proverbial duck to water, Enami was always careful to keep his compositions simple and artistic. This allowed for the successful conversion of most of his stereo negatives to effective 2-D lantern-slides, and prints of all sizes.

 

BELOW: An early lantern-slide by Enami utilizing another of his studio backdrops. Like the image above, this ca.1892-95 studio composition was one of many chosen by Tamamura for inclusion in the Brinkley Japan sets.
                                     

 
                 
BELOW: The 1897 Brinkley EMPEROR'S EDITION of Japan: Described and Illustrated by the Japanese. This set of 12 folio-sized volumes is covered with embroidered silk. The first 10 volumes contained the 260 tipped in albumen photographs. The last two contained tipped in tissue-gravures, numerous works of original art, and real ukiyo-e prints -- including those by the master Hokusai. There were many 10-volume versions with varying degrees of quality and content. Inexpensive versions reduced the amount of full-size matted albumen views, while replacing the smaller albumen images with almost totally different black-and-white halftones.

 

        Here are just a few more of the many postcard-sized Enami albumen                  photographs found tipped into the Brinkley sets......

ABOVE: Ca.1892-95. Four different hand-tinted, postcard-sized, tipped-in albumen views. These are only a few of the 20-some smaller Enami images identified so far among the many photographs appearing in the better Brinkley Japan sets. Studio views are easier to identify by his props and backgrounds. However, notice the identifying numbers from Enami's studio still visible in some of the prints. It is thought that many more are his, especially among the scenic views. Only careful matching with his known album images will tell the rest of the story as time goes by.

 

BELOW: Ca.1892-95. "Starving Geisha at a Noodle Eating Contest". (the title is mine). This T. Enami image was never used as an albumen print, being one of at least 15 Enami views appearing only as halftones in the lesser-quality versions of the Brinkley sets.

       

NOTE : For a more detailed discussion of the physical appearance of these BRINKLEY SETS, and probably the largest on-line display of their image content, the extensive website produced by GEORGE BAXLEY is the best place to go. George is one of the most meticulous fellows around, and presents not only comprehensive view lists, but also well-written overviews detailing the differences between the better-known major and minor sets. Although he has many pages relating to various aspects of the sets, and even a nice page devoted to the Flower Collotypes of K. Ogawa,you can start HERE with a look at his YEDO EDITION page. Simply follow his links for more editions and view lists.

       
        IN TRANSITION FROM 2-D to 3-D

          By the time the episode of the Brinkley Japan sets had arrived, Enami had already been working diligently—though in relative anonymity—for five years, producing all formats of studio portraits for walk-in customers, and a variety of commercial formats. These included bound albums of tinted photographs, and glass lantern-slides made from the album views. The years 1895-97 also appears to be the time that Enami began dabbling in what would eventually become his great love that saw wide distribution: the stereoview.
         Most of the 3-D images appearing here were photographed between 1898 and 1908. This is known by copyright dates assigned to variant views issued by Enami's American publishers.  Almost 200 are known that can be accurately dated as taken prior to 1900.           
                                                                                                                                            Unbeknownst to many is the fact that his famous teacher, K. Ogawa was also a stereo-photographer. During the 1885-1890 years when Enami was learning and assisting, Ogawa photographed a large series of over 100 cabinet-sized stereoviews—his early imprint and studio address being found on the back. This direct exposure to the wonders of the stereoscope under a teacher mostly remembered as being “King of the Collotype” no doubt contributed to Enami’s later success with the stereo-camera.
                    Raw contract proof from an untransposed stereo-negative, and a finished, transposed                    stereoview from a variant negative taken during the same session. While scrolling around               this website, the girl in the "Flying Cranes" obi in the top view may be seen in other                     images, and the bottom view may be seen as a lantern-slide.          
  

                               MATTERS OF STYLE
 
          A few comments about Enami's style should be touched on here. During the 37 years of his professional time behind the camera (preceeded by several years on top of that while working with K. Ogawa), Enami's sensibilities and styles evolved. Not unlike familiar painters of the West who went through definite "periods" of technique or expression in their mediums of canvas or clay, Enami also changed in his approach to the subject, and how he portrayed the material at hand.           
          His photographs from the earliest years often reflect the stiffness and formality that was likewise found in most of the posed studio and outdoor studies of his contemporaries. This was, of course, partly a product of limitations imposed by exposure times, and partly a result of following accepted norms. A cursory overview of the commercial albums of the time will quickly make apparent what styles and arrangements were considered "professional" in both studio and outdoor work.
          If you were to come across a very early Enami album, you would find the standard fare. Although some gems of composition stand out, more often than not, the skill of his older and more experienced contemporaries often exceeded him. However, it was only a matter of time before he would naturally discover the styles and formats that eventually set him apart.

         Ca.1895.  A Farmer and his Wife. Detail from a half-stereoview. This classic image was chosen for inclusion in the important Odyssey: The Art of Photography at National Geographic (1988), where it appeared as a black-and-white, full half-stereoview. Enami shot various poses during this session, both with and without the "farmer's wife" included in the view. Besides being sold on Enami's own mounts, variants of this session were also sold by George Rose of Australia, and George Griffith of Philadelphia, USA.

 
          It should be kept in mind that Enami was exposed to and trained under the "old school". The examples he had were the foreigners Beato, Stillfried, Farsari, and those native teachers, friends and contemporaries such as Ogawa, Kimbei, and Tamamura and others. Initially, their styles were his styles.  
          However, while his well-known contemporaries tended to maintain the "safe", traditional modes of expression throughout their careers, the independent-minded Enami gradually divided himself into "two photographers". On the one hand, he maintained his line of "classic" album images (which, like the rest of his competitors, certainly had its boring moments of non-descript temple views and the occasional less-than-inspired scenics), while at the same time, he was also able to free himself from any obligation to such conventions in order to develop his creativity in other formats.  

          Enami started posing his subjects in more natural ways, and in more natural settings. Serious geisha groups in the studio gradually became playful, friendly, and naturally posed groups in the parks and gardens of Japan. He encouraged those he was pointing the lens at to go about their business while ignoring him. In the studio, the subjects usually faced him. But "on location", he many times posed his models to face away from the camera, as if looking into the scene along with you and Enami himself. If facing you, he had them engaged in real activities rather than situations contrived in the studio where unrelated backgrounds were common. His ability to remove the self-consciousness of his subjects, and introduce less-stilted groups and children into many scenes was also important in otherwise hesitant or superstitious environments.

         A good example of this transition of style and setting for a particular theme can be seen in a comparison of two images separated by only a few years. First, the studio illustration immediately above ("A Farmer and His Wife") was photographed in stereo as part of a large group of ca. 1895 studio images that began his first efforts in this format. However, the flatness of the backdrop and general confines of the studio did not escape his notice. By 1898-1900, he was going after the same themes, but with the introduction of natural settings and a pleasing perspective of subject placement. The result seen below ("Coming Home from the Fields") was a leap in style that quickly pervaded Enami's work, leaving the other "album makers" behind. His neighbor, Tamamura seemed to take note, as he followed Enami in his quest for such a style. This would later translate into the fine series of lantern-slides by T. Takaki, who would eventually take over Tamamura's Kobe City branch studio and image stock.

         Ca.1898. Coming Home from the Fields. Vignette from a half-stereoview. This image, along with several other Enami views, appeared as a black-and-white, full half-stereoview in the September 1922 issue of National Geographic Magazine. Enami photographs would eventually be used as illustrations in at least four issues, their display varying anywhere from four images on a double-page spread, to full page color renditions.

           Interestingly enough, in the 1920s, the National Geographic Society apparently thought Enami's older studio portrait of the "Farmer and his Wife" was too dated and unnatural to use on the pages of their naturalistic, journal-style Magazine. They put the photo away, opting instead for the naturally posed outdoor view just above to grace their pages. However, in 1988, when it came to deciding what was "art", they dug out the cramped studio view, and honored it as one of the best images of the Society's 100-year existence!

         The question of when document becomes art, and visa versa, is sometimes an inexplicable event in the minds of those to whom it all matters. In either case, Enami succeeded in winning friends and clientele among both those who simply liked his photographs, and professionals who wanted Enami's images displayed along side of their own. Today, an evaluation of Enami's images reveals not only who he was as a photographer, but also the degree to which he can be called an "artist" in relationship to the changing eras in which he lived, and how, after the passage of time, we perceive the images that he and others left to us.

           In any case, due to his occasional freedom of style, initial reaction to many of Enami's images sometimes places him (in the mind of the observer) into a photographic period that seems to have come after his contemporaries—almost as if he was born after them, and was not a part of their world. Perhaps this is one reason why his Meiji-era 1890s work was still being used by books and magazines almost until WW2, while the dated and conservative "album work" by his more famous contemporaries--photographed during the same time period--became largely ignored by progressive Taisho and Showa-era publishers of the day.
 
           Enami was not the only one to have these abilities, but he was certainly one of just a few during the 1890s to produce commercial images reflecting the natural pace and poses of life in Japan. As for technique, he began clearing away the wider margins from his scenes, and moved in for tighter, closely cropped groups and "occupationals". The 1901 Japanese stereoviews published by Ben Kilburn (photographer unknown) came closest in style to Enami, yet Enami had already attained this style and feel years before Kilburn's photographer arrived in Japan.                                                                    

         Finally, while trekking the length of the Empire to capture scenes of both commercial and artistic value, he had no qualms about jumping off the beaten path to photograph odd, unusual, and fleeting moments that appealed to him as a photographer. For example, while taking beautiful commercial views of Mount Fuji that tourists snapped up, he also hiked into rough and forsaken areas at the base of the cone to capture the half-dead and twisted trees, exposing the rough, uninviting desolation of the place. Many of his proof-sheets hold images that have never been found commercially issued. Yet some of these are now the most fascinating to look at.

         In any case, unlike the standard, and often quite lovely images of Kimbei and others during their time (whose seemingly exotic studio work certainly qualifies as "art" in today's eyes), Enami cannot be pinned down to one "look" over the course of his studio's output — the photographs throughout this site being ample evidence of his growing journalistic freedom with the camera.

 

        T. ENAMI and H.G. PONTING

  

    While discussing matters of style, it seems appropriate to mention here that during the years 1901 through 1906, visiting stereo-photographer Herbert George Ponting and T. Enami seem to have influenced each other to the point where they both tried to recapture with their own lenses the very images they admired in each others work. 

   This largely subjective observation deserves a whole chapter of deeper commentary, with specific examples, and will probably form an important part of the book being written about Enami.

   For now, suffice it to say that certain evidence points to the two men having professional relationship. Beside the fact that Ponting acquired many of Enami's early stereoviews to augment his own images sent back to the USA for publication, they also shared the publication services of K. Ogawa in Japan.

   Many of their images are strikingly similar, and it is not unreasonable to imagine that Ponting enlisted Enami's help for a photo trek through at least a part of Japan. The elder Enami could have acted as a 3-D guide while they both captured images for their own respective stocks.

  The above comments remain speculative, but will be illuminated in the future.

 

Ca. 1898.Sanjo Bridge, Kyoto. This bridge was a popular subject for all commercial photographers. Both Japanese and Westerners never failed to photograph it for their series of album views, stereoviews, and postcards.

BELOW: After satisfying commercial needs with the above stereo-view, Enami climbed down under the bridge to capture a more intimate, deep 3-D scene of people having lunch in the shade of the bridge, the cool waters of the river flowing inches below their make-shift platforms. Although such fleeting arrangements were often swept away, the floodwaters would rarely reach the electric lights strung above, and the people would return again to the shade. [NOTE: Japan began the manufacture of light bulbs in 1890. Heading up the endeavor to bring this invention to Japan was a young Japanese man who had met Edison in the USA some years before, and was determined that his country should manufacture their own bulbs, rather than import them. It was only a short string of companies that led from this light bulb to the establishment of TOSHIBA ELECTRONICS]. SEE HALF-STEREOVIEW WITH MORE LINKS AND NOTES HERE.

 

       ENAMI'S USE OF OTHERS IMAGES                   
 
          In a world where the word "copyright" meant little, and piracy was rampant, it is fair to ask, "Did Enami ever 'pirate' the views of others?" --- the word "pirate" here meaning "to use or publish without permission, or as your own".  In spite of the fact that Enami was not known to pirate, I have identified about five images that I don't believe are his, yet appear on a regular basis in his known albums.

          Out of the 861 Japanese images listed in his Catalog, a couple appear to be "Public Domain" views, while a few more seem to be those purchased or used with permission. It is also possible that he included in his portfolio some images taken while in the employ of K. Ogawa, or any other interim studio he may have worked at before officially starting out on his own.    

          Bennett's DATA GUIDE attributes one image to USUI, and I myself believe that he might have done some trading of images by agreement with his Yokohama neighbors, Tamamura and Kimbei. Kimbei, as most curators know, was himself launched in the business with a portfolio of images that were largely not his own, and built up his own personal image stock over a period of years. 

          At the moment, Enami views under question are only the large format albumen prints, and amount to about five views out of a thousand. Tamamura and Kimbei's lists are fairly complete, and Enami's own images can be checked against them for any image duplication. In fact I have seen an Enami image in the portfolio of SHINICHI SUZUKI, where Suzuki has trimmed off Enami's catalog number, and added his own number to the Negative. Suzuki went out of business in 1896.    

         At this point, it appears that, excepting the few known images mentioned above that do appear in Enami's Catalog, it is safe to say that the vast majority Enami's numbered Japan images -- 99% -- are his own.

        If and when this information is published in hard copy, I will show the very few "Enami Views" that I don't believe are by him, while showing the in-photo evidence that seems to point to others being behind the lens

         Unfortunately, he did receive the back-handed compliment of having his own images pirated on numerous occasions by other Japanese publishers, and distributed as inferior quality views that included both flat prints and stereoviews. Compare the four sets of stereoviews below, and make your own judgment !

               ABOVE : REAL and FAKE.  NAITO, TOKKIO, MURAYAMA were among many publishers that were notorious pirates of others images. While Naito boldy proclaims himself on the front, TOKKIO CO, hid their log on the back, and MURAYAMA went so far as to put his own initials right in the copy negatives (!). Always remember that an ENAMI imprinted stereoview is truly from Enami's studio.

 

 ABOVE : REAL and OBVIOUS FAKE

  ABOVE : AUTHORIZED AMERICAN RE-PRINT by T.W. Ingersoll, and a JAPANESE PIRATE OF AN ENAMI VARIANT SOLD IN JAPAN.

ABOVE : A real T. ENAMI view, and a CHEAP PIRATE COPY by the TOKKIO COMPANY of TOKYO.

             
 
                                   BRANCHING OUT

          By the turn of the century, Enami had established his first overseas branch studio in Hong Kong, followed closely by two studios in the Philippines—at Dagupan and Manila. Here again, the camera-toting Enami sets himself apart by engaging in activity unique among his contemporaries. A survey of all Japanese Photographer and Studio advertisements for the entire Meiji-era finds T. Enami expanding his local dark-room work to include a portfolio of images beyond the shores of Japan, making him the only Japan-based photographer to advertise both stock photographs and stereoviews of the Philippines, as well as several locations throughout China.

After examining the few Enami images now identified from China and the Philippines, it appears that Enami took the actual commercial images of these locations that appeared for sale in his Yokohama studio.

On the other hand, personal portraits and images such as the one shown to the right were probably taken by the studio photographers appointed by Enami. Other images might also be the work of amateurs, and simply processed and mounted by the studios.

The "professionalism" of any image in question, as well as whether the subject is of a "genre" nature or a personal memento, should help in making a tentative judgment as to who was behind the camera.
         
          Also at this critical turn-of-the-century time, Enami's stereoview series of Japan were becoming popular in several countries, and both T.W. Ingersoll (Saint Paul, Minnesota) and Griffith & Griffith (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) offered 100s of Enami titles—all unaccredited—sold by door-to-door canvassers across the USA and Canada. Meanwhile, back in Japan, Enami's beautifully tinted lantern-slides made from half-stereoviews were in demand by businessmen, missionaries, and the wealthier tourists passing through. His negative stock for classic album views already exceeded 1000 (and possibly over 1500) titles at this time, and was probably matched or exceeded by the title list for the far more useful stereoviews. 
          All of this attracted the attention of a certain young American who had gotten a severe bug for two things: Travel and Photography. Let's talk about him for a moment before getting back to Enami and his stereoviews....
      

 

                                  BURTON HOLMES 
 
          Here, we drag Burton Holmes of Travelogue fame into the story. Holmes made his first visit to Japan in 1892—the same year Enami opened his studio in Yokohama. Holmes made at least ten visits to Japan over the course of the years, and was a great photographer in his own right. He also got to see and know the reputation of Japanese photographers as well.
          By 1900—still early in his career—he knew he needed the finest color images for the Travelogues upon which his own reputation was being built. For this, he relied on the artistic abilities of two American women—and the studios of two Japanese men. These men were T. Enami and K. Tamamura—still good friends, fresh from cooperating on the Brinkley Japan project—and in Burton Holmes opinion, the finest colorists in Japan. By this association, Enami's images also found their way into the Burton Holmes Collection of lantern-slides seen by the masses of people who thronged to his lectures.

         
          A quick look at the Enami images Holmes selected for his Travelogue publications reveal a highly conservative bent on the part of Holmes, who went for many of Enami's very early, straightforward street scenes and temple views.
          In the earliest editions of the multi-volume Travelogue sets, Holmes was careful to credit Enami and the other photographers whose images appeared in his fine series books. At least twenty of Enami's photos are verified this way, with a few more slipping by without credit. Unfortunately, in later editions where the publisher had changed hands, all photographer credits were inexplicably erased from the printing plates. This less-than-ethical move added undeserved weight to the "With Illustrations from Photographs by the Author" banner claim of the Title Page. However, biographer Genoa Caldwell is emphatic about Holmes personal record of always giving proper, public credit to the photographers whose images played on the screen along with his own.

          Amazingly, Enami is resurrected again with the leading photograph for the Japan chapter of Caldwell's beautiful book Burton Holmes Travelogues - The Greatest Traveler of His Time. 1892-1952 (Taschen 2006) on page 200. This Enami image of Mt. Fuji is one of several he shot in the area, and appears in the book with the image reversed left-for-right. This is also one of many Enami views in the Holmes Collection whose proper credit mysteriously disappeared as the collection and its documentation changes hands over the years.
           Although Holmes was not a stereo-photographer, he eventually became editor of Keystone View Company's Tour of the World stereoview sets in the 1920s and 30s. That gave him plenty of time to look at the many Enami stereoviews that by now had come to reside in the Keystone image bank...bringing us back to the story of the international use of Enami's stereoviews.
                       

       
         JAPAN'S  3-D  PHOTOGRAPHER...
                  TO THE WORLD !
 
          With exotic Japan always in the News for one thing or another, and the unceasingly popular Gilbert & Sullivan’s Mikado continuing to make the rounds of the world’s theaters, the rush for images of "Fairy Land Japan" was at its peak. From 1900 to 1910, Enami's 3D images were published as real-photos in full or in part by Griffith & Griffith, and T.W. Ingersoll, C.H. Graves, Underwood & Underwood, George Rose of Australia, E.W. Kelly, Presco, Stereo-Travel Co, German NPG, Universal Stereoscope, and many other odd makers spread throughout North America and Europe.

           During this time, the old French firm of LL—Leon & Family (formerly Leon & Levy)—offered a collotype postcard series of two-dozen Enami stereoviews. These views were even sold by the Louvre Museum in Paris—a name synonymous with all that is art.
 
           In the early days, while the 100s of Japan views in the Griffith and Ingersoll lines were made up entirely of T. Enami images, only H.C. White Co. and Keystone View Co. did not purchase any Enami negatives for their files. However, by virtue of Keystone’s later acquisition of many older publishers, Keystone eventually did put at least one or more popular Enami views into their home, school, and travel sets. It is possible that others in the later Keystone lines will be recognized as the work of Enami.
       
          When the Russo-Japan War broke out in 1904, Enami, already in his 40s, joined the Imperial Army as a military photographer.  His many wartime photographs were published in at least one Japanese book, and his stereoviews of home-front activities found their way into the still booming market for stereoviews.
          Australian stereo-photographer George Rose visited Japan, Korea, and China at the height of the "war fever". Rose was a skilled and artistic photographer, and normally did not rely on others to fill out his view lists. However, his time in Japan was limited, preventing him from taking the many months necessary for a full 3-D tour. Impressed with Enami's images, he appears to have made some sort of deal with Enami to obtain full-plate 3-D copy negatives or prints to cover some of the areas and subjects he missed. Rose returned "down under" with this selection of Enami's older peacetime images that nicely filled out his own line of stereoviews taken while in Japan. He carefully reworked the negatives to fit his larger cabinet format, and added easy-to-read "stereo-captions".

         1906 ad for Sears set of 100 T. Enami lithographic stereoviews. The woodcut engravings                          of the sample stereoviews are still identifyable as T. Enami images. 

                  
 
          Although the first Sears Roebuck & Co. offering of Enami images was in a small 1904 set, in 1905 they wanted to offer a new and more extensive line of Japan stereoviews for sale in their "Big Book" catalog, which was already seeing a press-run of over 6,000,000 copies per issue. After obtaining rights from Ingersoll to 100 of Enami's stereoviews, they converted the relatively expensive real-photo originals into cheap, three-color lithographs. Boxed up in 100-view sets with great catalog fanfare, they were sold in untold numbers across America. For almost five years, this was one of Sears’ best-selling stereoview items.
          Even today, these colored 3D lithographs remain ubiquitous finds in flea markets. In fact, any half-tone litho-view by any publisher of a Japan proper image—as long as it does not have an H.C. White copyright on it—is from a photograph by T. Enami.  Not a day goes by without several of these T. Enami stereoviews being listed on eBay—T. Enami’s name being understandably absent from the seller’s description.
        
         Of course, Enami himself had no control over the quality of these litho-views—the sometimes gaudy coloring was not his, and, looked at through the stereoscope, the half-tone dots might as well have been polka-dots. However, they remain valuable for showing Enami's studio props and a portion of his inventory—all extremely important in helping to identify his real-photo images found on both classic stereoviews, and incredibly detailed lantern-slides.
 
 
          Although Enami continued to offer stereoviews—apparently until 1923—the boom had leveled off by about 1910. As the 3-D market diminished, the demand for postcards, which had really taken off during the 1900-1910 period, appeared to keep growing. Enami, who was always on top of the latest photographic trends, probably contributed to the mass of images found on Japanese scenic postcards found from this period. His views have been identified on many series, both Japanese and foreign.
 

 
                 GOODBYE TO THE MEIJI ERA
 
            1912 was the last year of the Meiji era, and also the first year of the Taisho era. Just prior to the death of Emperor Meiji, Enami’s old teacher, K. Ogawa, decided to publish a plate book of Mount Fuji photographs. Besides selecting his own best images of Mt. Fuji for inclusion in the new book, Ogawa invited only two other Japanese photographers to contribute—Tamamura, and Enami. When the new folio-sized FUJI SAN appeared (Tokyo: Ogawa Photo Press, 1912), Ogawa had used seven of his own images, with Tamamura having been allowed six. However, Enami had been given the most attention with eleven of his credited photographs on display. Curators take note—while collectors today fawn over the works of K. Ogawa, it was Ogawa who fawned over photographs by Enami. Thus was the esteem that Ogawa held for Enami—and these winning images were all taken from half-stereoviews.
 

 
                              OLD STUDIOS FADE.  
                  ENAMI DIGS IN.
 
          When Japan entered the Taisho era (1912-26), Enami had beyond all doubt established himself as the Japanese King of the small-format image. He emerged successfully from his humble start in 1892 when surrounded by the already famous, well-established souvenir album makers of the time. Enami's continued strength in the photography market seemed to be found in fulfilling a continuing demand for his well-regarded small-format images.
 
          In 1914, the Imperial Japan Government Railways published their English language Official Guide to North-Eastern Japan.

          For tourists needing photographic services, they listed several studios in Yokohama. Besides Enami, the list also included the venerable studios of Farsari, Kimbei, and Tamamura.

         However, while these others received only a posting of name and address, Enami’s listing was given added notice of  “…Colored Lantern-slides, Stereoscopic Views…” —the two things that he had become noted for.

         These glass slides (again, many being made from the stereoviews and album images he took during the 1895-1905 late-Meiji period) were well used by missionary organizations and educational services.
   

          

                              See the full STEREOVIEW of the above image HERE. 

                        ENAMI'S PHOTOGRAPHS 
     INTO THE HANDS OF MILLIONS

 
          Most professional free-lance, journal and nature photographers would be happy having their photographs appear even once on the pages of National Geographic Magazine. During his life, and even after his death, Enami’s images appeared in at least four issues.  He was alive two see the first two, when in 1921 and 1922, his (mostly) now-credited photos landed on the pages of this yellow-bordered journal of the world’s finest photography. Although the Society made every effort to credit their photographs correctly, a few Enami images slipped by with either no credit, or credit went to a Society member who supplied the images upon their return from Japan. Many more of his photographs quietly joined the Society's bank of unpublished images, where they would be rediscovered over fifty years later.
     
 
          A New York Times supplement devoted a full page to one of his Mt. Fuji compositions. His good friend, British missionary, photographer, and mountaineer Walter Weston also had two books coming up that would use Enami's images in both color and black-and-white.

         1922 was also the year when prolific British editor Sir John Hammerton chose over thirty black-and-white and color T. Enami images to illustrate the Japan chapter of his seven-volume Peoples of all Nations (London: Fleetway House, 1922). In addition to the in-text illustrations by Enami (and others), Hammerton also selected eight of Enami's half-stereoviews to be reproduced as full-page, hand-colored plates. A color, full-plate Enami image was also chosen as the frontispiece for the later two-volume abridgment.

           These various versions became best sellers, and put Enami's images into the hands of millions of subscribers in America and all the countries of the British Empire. Unfortunately, a great injustice occurred when Hammerton credited all of the images to Walter Weston, who had passed them to Hammerton on behalf of Enami. Ironically, Weston himself was always careful to credit Enami in his own works.

 

 
            
 
             AGING GRACEFULLY...

              and SUCCESSFULLY

          1922. Enami, in his early 60's, was at the top of his game. Via lantern-slides and printed publications, his images of Japan were experiencing an unprecedented distribution around the world. As for classic real-photo prints, the late photo-historian Frances Fralin stated, "Enami was known to have submitted pictures to several international photo salons held in the United States".
 
          "Things Japanese" were a great subject for anyone's camera, but lovers of good photography never seemed to tire of acquiring Enami's particular visions of his own land and people. Age had neither diminished his love of photography, nor interfered with his business acumen in finding every opportunity to distribute these images. But now, Enami's abilities and stamina were about to be tested.

                   Arashiyama River and the Moon Crossing Bridge at Kyoto.      Ca.1898-1907

 
                                 EARTHQUAKE
 
          September 1st, 1923. Noon. The Great Kanto Plains Earthquake was one of the largest recorded quakes in the history of Japan. Books were written about it then, and are still being written now. In Yokohama and Tokyo, 140,000 to 160,000 souls were either crushed to death, burned beyond recognition, or had the air sucked from their lungs, suffocating them in the whirlwind firestorm that followed in the hours after the initial quake brought everything down.
          Although T. Enami and his entire family escaped in the confusing mass exodus that ensued immediately following the collapse of the buildings, in the fire that followed hours later, his Studio of over twenty one years was wiped off the map. In England, Walter Weston would soon bring attention to Enami’s talent, as well as his plight. Writing in the introduction to his book Japan (London: A&C Black, 1926) Weston would state, “The handsomely reproduced illustrations (with the exceptions of those otherwise indicated) are from beautifully coloured lantern-slides produced by my old and valued helper, T. Enami, of Yokohama, in the studio that subsequently vanished in the fire following the earthquake of 1923.”        Looking down over the destruction of Yokohama bt Earthquake and Fire in September 1923.           Enami's studio was located roughly in the middle of the photo. A two-part postcard panorama.                       Photographer unknown. Right-click and "view image" for a better look.

                   
 
          Was Enami or his staff able to grab any boxes of contact prints or proof sheets from what might have been only a partially damaged building? The immense stores of glass negatives, even if not broken, must have been too heavy to carry away to safety in the mad rush of people fleeing the distant walls of approaching flames. The image that comes to mind is a sea of molten glass on the floor of his ruined studio, melted by the fires that raged after the Earthquake. No one knows the particulars, but the property at No.9 Benten Street was gone forever. However, Enami refused to let his name and Studio die.

 

                          From the introduction to Walter Weston's 1926 JAPAN.

        
 
         RESURRECTION and FINAL DAYS

          We know from surviving data that by the end of 1925, Enami had established a temporary studio at a new location (No.2–41) on the still recovering Benten Street. Apparently, the location and conditions were less than ideal. However, sometime between early 1926 and late 1929, he settled on a final property at No.29, only a block away from his original No.9 location. In any case, it was apparently not until after Emperor Hirohito's 1926 ascension to the throne (ushering in the Showa era) that Enami opened for business at No.29 Bentendori.

         TECHNICAL NOTE !  Concerning lantern-slides labeled with the No.29 Bentendori address, it is important to understand that no data exists telling us exactly when during the 1926-29 time-frame that the final studio was occupied at No.29. The annual business directories and phone books that should exist for that time frame were destroyed in WW2; it is not until the next surviving piece of data [published in late-1929, after Enami's death] that we see the studio already established and running in its final location.

         Lacking clear directory data, it is possible to speculate that the final move happened as late as early-1929 (shortly after Enami died), thereby making Enami's son, Tamotsu, the processor/publisher of any and all No.29 slides. However, knowing the time-consuming business practices that revolve around such relocations, and the distractions of post-death funeral customs in Japan, it seems more likely that the No.29 Studio was already in operation before T. Enami passed away.

         Further, ephemera such as the No.29 Studio letterhead (with T. Enami listed as Photographer) re-enforce the supposition that the studio was, in fact, already operating at No.29 prior to his death. Therefore, without "dating clues" that might tell us when a particular image was actually printed, it would not be unreasonable to consider a slide labeled with the No.29 Bentendori address as one having been made by T. Enami himself during the last few years prior to his death.

        However, lacking clear directory data, it is simply a matter of caution to describe [in captions or catalogues] any No.29 Bentendori labeled image as "post-1929", regardless of the very real possibility that it might actually be an early-1926 to February 1929 (time of Enami's death) lantern-slide produced by the master's own hands, or at the very least, under his strict supervision.

            THE IMPERIAL HOTEL -- Frank Lloyd Wright's Masterpiece in Tokyo. Ca.1924-28                             Photo by T. ENAMI. Lantern-slide image probably printed by his son after 1929.

           Using various means, he had re-gathered many of the early images from collections and persons outside the range of destruction. Enami probably knew many of those who had purchased collections of his photographs, including oversea publishers and photo services.  Accessing these precious images (along with possible boxes of paper proofs he might have saved from the fires as he fled) gave him the needed “classic” stock to start over again—along with the new photographs he was taking to fill out an up-to-date view list.
 
     
           Enami had risen from the ashes, and the business he knew and loved was growing again. However, his long and active life was now coming to a close. On April 16th, 1929, Nobukuni—T. Enami—passed away at age seventy. From age thirty-three, to the time of his death, he had never put his camera down. The boxes and bins of his studio were filled with photographic art and document touching the reigns of three Emperors—all in Enami’s ever-changing styles over the course of his dedicated career.  His first son, Tamotsu, at age 36, took over the studio, and his father’s legacy. 

                                    Riding Horses in Bermuda. Lantern-slide, Ca.1935. Processed and hand-                                    colored by T. Enami's son, Tamotsu as part of a large series of Bermuda                                              images done up in the 1930s for an unknown customer.

            
        
                                               TAMOTSU
 
          Tamotsu was not a photographer. From 1929 to 1945, the studio carried on primarily as a commercial photo-processing and publishing enterprise. It is possible to speculate that he also did some straight-forward portrait and "ID Photo" type work as a camera operator, yet no imprinted studio-type images from that era have ever been found to confirm such speculation. His nephew, who knew him well, remarked that he was not known as a photographer, and even if he had engaged in any picture taking, was "not really comfortable with a camera".

         He did continue developing, printing, and enlarging for amateurs, as well as continuing production of his father's beautifully tinted lantern-slide sets—images taken both before and after the earthquake. Obvious amateur and foreign-subject images aside, these later issues from negatives of Enami's classic Japanese scenes—with the No.29 Bentendori address labels affixed to them—can be considered as authentically "T. Enami" as those made before his death. That is because they were still being made and tinted by the same colorists and darkroom people that worked under T. Enami's strict supervision while he was still alive.
 
          Tamotsu is to be appreciated for the extra fifteen years of life he gave to the artistic continuance of his father's unique vision of Meiji-Taisho Japan. Because of this, many more collectors (and collections) are able to preserve and enjoy that era of Japan's history, now gone from the face of the earth.

                        Lotus Pond in Tokyo.  Hand-colored albumen print by T. Enami ca.1892-96.

 

           WORLD WAR TWO and BEYOND
    
          In 1945, the American B-29 Firebombing missions of general LeMay destroyed some nine square miles of Yokohama. T. Enami's painstakingly restored negative stock once again vanished from the face of the Earth. After 53 years in business, the T. Enami studio finally came to an end.
         Tamotsu survived the war. He never tried to re-gather the lost archive, as had been done following the earthquake of 1923. Instead, he laid his father’s legacy to rest in the ashes of WW2. He started from scratch on his own terms. Trying his uneasy hand at photography using whatever supplies he could scrounge, he sold what images he could to the Occupation Forces—in a way, they were another version of the wealthier, Western tourist clientèle that he had always dealt with before the war.
 
 
           However, Tamotsu was apparently was not so successful. Further, the Occupation Forces took over certain sections of Yokohama, and wouldn't allow him to return to Benten Street. He and his wife were forced to relocate to another part of Yokohama. There, he returned to the business he knew best, re-establishing a small photo-processing business. His always-helpful wife passed away in 1964. Tamotsu died alone and childless on August 4th, 1969, having survived in the photography business for 40 years beyond the death of his father.

 
                                            TODAY
 
          During the days when he was alive and active, Enami had the respect of publishers and peers around the world. Today, photographs of any size by T. Enami have once again become highly collectible. His delicately tinted stereoviews and lantern-slides found in beautiful condition are treasured and preserved by those who own them. Even the lowly lithograph versions of his images have value as a guide to what real-photo versions are possible to find.
 
          Perhaps one reason Enami's name became forgotten among collectors of Japanese photography was the tendency of photo-historians and curators to dwell almost exclusively on the Bakumatsu (pre-1869) period, and on later Meiji-era photographers whose fame and reputations rested largely on their production of larger flat prints and album views. In their time, these expensive albums were rarely shown outside of small circles—ultimately getting buried in boxes, bookshelves, and attics—only to await rediscovery and appreciation during the latter half of the 20th century.
              
          No one disputes the beauty, richness and appeal of these many large “Yokohama Album Views" made by the famous masters of the Meiji-era—a classic format to which Enami himself contributed well over 1000 images. However, the beauty and depth of many hand-held Daguerreotypes, Ambrotypes, and early CDV images teaches us that the small format image is also not without its makers of worthy treasures.

                       

            Cherry Blossoms on a Sepia Street in Yokohama.   Ca.1892-96 print by T. Enami.

 

          Enami, more than his peers, became taken with the visual possibilities inherent in these smaller pieces of glass and paper, eventually becoming a master of light, shadow, composition and color in this once-popular world of lantern-slides and stereoviews.
 
         What most have forgotten is that these images, when viewed in a quality stereoscope as intended by the photographer (or projected on the screen), actually appear larger than any album view, and hold the attention of the eyes far longer. Not to mention the "Oooo" and "Ahhhhh" factors. Art, after all, is meant to illicit a response in the heart and minds of those who behold it. Those reactions, no doubt, brought great satisfaction to Enami.

              
                                            EPILOGUE
 
           In preparation for the National Geographic Society's 100th Anniversary, a staff of art and photo-historians from both the Society, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC went through the Society's massive photo archives to cull the best photographs from their one hundred year history. The resulting exhibition was cataloged in the monumental book Odyssey - The Art of Photography at National Geographic (Charlottesville: Thomasson-Grant, 1988). T. Enami's work appears twice among the almost 300 images in the book. And one of those—Japanese Junks—was chosen as the sole inset photograph for the cover of the first edition. Originally shot in depth as an effective stereoview, it transformed well as a 2-D “pictorial” image long before the Japanese pictorial movement came into vogue. This image, and the full cover that contains it is posted near the TOP of this Web-page.

          This posthumous honor bestowed by the editors of the National Geographic Society and the Corcoran Gallery of Art would have made his famous friend and teacher, K. Ogawa, very proud.

              

      Ca. 1892-95. Kintai Bridge at Iwakuni.  From an early, large-format albumen view by T. Enami.

  
                     POSTSCRIPT                                                                                                                               

          I offer here a few highly subjective, personal opinions regarding the various Meiji-Taisho-era Japanese photographers who worked in small format.

           In the world of very early stereoviews, I am most taken with those attributed to RENJO SHIMOOKA (Published by Anthony, label credit to G.A.B.), and MATSUSABURO YOKOYAMA.                                                                                                                    

           The late-Meiji and Taisho-era world of stereoviews belongs to T. Enami. No one came close to Enami in his care for the “stereo window”, delicate hand tinting, and consistent production quality. His were not the mass-produced "assembly line" stereoviews of the 20th Century. Rather, they were "hands on" creations of an intensely personal nature from his treks around Japan—the tinted ones especially, as they took hours and days (some have said a week or more) to complete.

          However, two other Japanese stereo-photographers are noteworthy for both artistic and historic images in a style totally different than that of Enami: KIYOKICHI TAKADA (Katsugakwan imprint) and HOGETSU MURAYAMA (H.G. Murayama imprint).

         The three most interesting 3D series whose photographers remain unknown are those with the Stereoscopic Photograph imprint, the International Stereoscope Association imprint, and those with the Naito imprint.  All of the above, in their various eras, are the best out of 30 or so series I have looked at. As already mentioned, Enami was the first to have converted his stereoviews into lantern-slides for 2D projection.

                                   Tokyo Industrial Expo, 1907.  By, K. Takada. Unusual night views of the electric                             illumination, and Japan's second Ferris Wheel (the first was in Osaka in 1906). 

 

                                                           Three examples of stereoviews published by HOGETSU MURAYAMA, ca,1900.

          In the world of Japanese lantern-slides, Nakajima seems to have done the best early work (his wife did the coloring). See some samples of his work at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography [GEH] HERE, and in the private Mikio Inose Collection in Japan HERE.
          Late-Meiji and Taisho-era lantern-slides again belong to Enami—given the edge by virtue of his more vibrant, detailed use of color. However, T. Takagi of Kobe made several series that rival Enami’s work, and provide a different style and subject matter. Takagi’s compositions, and use of a more subdued color-scheme have their own artistic appeal. It is possible that some (or most) of the images Takagi sold in any format were originally those of Enami's neighbor, Tamamura Kozaburo.
          Many times equally impressive, the lantern-slide work of both Enami and Takagi is worth acquiring if you are interested in this format. Another Kobe maker, Futaba, also did some nice work as well. However, it is possible that Futaba was only a publisher, re-labeling Takagi views for distribution on his own slide mounts (which are almost exact copies of Takagi's mounts!)                                                         The T. Enami lantern-slide images posted throughout this site are standard picks that fairly portray a cross section of his work. For comparison purposes, some T. Takagi compositions in the GEH may be seen HERE, and even more Takagi and Futaba slides at Swarthmore College HERE. In defense of Takagi, the GEH postings do not represent the best of Takagi's work. However, in defense of the GEH, the Takagi images they have were given to them as a gift. (The GEH has not yet gotten around to posting examples of their fifty or more T. Enami lantern-slides).

          In the broader world of flat photographic images of Japan, truly great images can be found, made by many photographers working in the direst circumstances. I try to convince myself that I am not an enthusiastic fan of the albumen process as a means for printing out their occasional impressive compositions that would be (or should be) considered works of art. However, those suspicious leanings usually come undone when I am confronted with a dark, richly printed image of some other-worldly subject bathed in crisp shadows and skillfully controlled light. These would include a few soul-stirring Beato albumen images worth dying for (like the ones with huge, leaning pine trees that dominate the scene), and some great images by Stillfried and Kimbei. Usui and Kajima are also on my list of favorite albumen print makers.

           In general, however, I repeatedly find myself moved by two things:

           First, 1890s–1915 salt prints by the handful of Japanese commercial artists who resurrected this simple process during the last half of the Meiji era. Soaking their image right into the fibers of the paper (and apparently foregoing the gold-toning step for "permanence"), most of these photographers used saturating tints and token paint effects on the matte-surface, giving us real photographic "art" that holds the eye with pleasure....longer than we probably thought to look. (Did Enami experiment with salt prints? I don't know).

           Second, the ca.1910s–20s “Taisho Art” images by budding pictorialists, many who remain unknown.  A quality collection of beautiful Japanese pictorial silver-prints and gravures are possible to build over a period of time. However, often ignored are the many times equally beautiful collotype postcards found in this genre.  Found in monotones—various hues of blue, green, and sepia—they were made by talented but anonymous photographers in small runs for meager distribution. The difference between the high-end silver prints, and the humble images found on vintage postcard is simply a matter of scale.

          When used as illustrations in the various publishing media, the importance of original image size and process is negated, leaving only the content to be judged for its artistic merit. 

          A good image in any size is always nice to find.

 
                          
     T. ENAMI eBay TRIVIA FACT                 

AT LEAST ONE OR MORE  T. ENAMI LANTERN-SLIDES, PRINTS, OR STEREOVIEWS (both REAL-PHOTO and LITHO-VIEWS) HAVE BEEN UP FOR BIDS ON eBay EVERY DAY FOR THE PAST TEN YEARS !

HOWEVER, A SEARCH FOR "ENAMI" USUALLY DOESN'T WORK, BECAUSE 99% OF THESE OLD PHOTOS ARE UNIDENTIFIED BY THE SELLERS WHO DON'T KNOW THEY ARE PHOTOGRAPHS BY ENAMI.

CA. 1898. BUTT NAKED JAPAN. [My title is revised from the original] This T. Enami view has come up on eBay several times, and is typical of some of the off-the-wall images that only he would take. Even in those Victorian times, it was considered more humorous than offensive, and was a good seller for stereoview publisher Griffith & Griffith of Philadelphia.

 
Images and Text Posted by   Rob Oechsle  /  Okinawa, Japan  /  October 2007

Okinawa....best place to live in Japan
 3-D Photos...for folks with two eyes.
 
Text Copyright  2007-2010 Rob Oechsle. All rights reserved.

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