Ogawa Kazumasa
Encyclopedia
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
photographer, printer and publisher who was a pioneer in photomechanical printing and photography in the Meiji era
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
.
Ogawa was born in Saitama
Saitama, Saitama
' is the capital and the most populous city of Saitama Prefecture in Japan, situated in the south-east of the prefecture. Its area incorporates the former cities of Urawa, Ōmiya, Yono and Iwatsuki. It is a city designated by government ordinance...
to the Matsudaira samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
clan. He started studying English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
at the age of 15 under Yoshiwara Hideo, then in 1880 he moved to Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
in order to further hone his English language skills. One year later, Ogawa was hired as an interpreter in the Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
Police Department, while learning photography from Shimooka Renjō
Shimooka Renjo
was a renowned Japanese photographer.- External links :*...
in Yokohama.
In 1882, he moved to Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
where he took courses in portrait photography
Portrait photography
Portrait photography or portraiture is the capture by means of photography of the likeness of a person or a small group of people , in which the face and expression is predominant. The objective is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the subject...
and the dry plate process
Dry plate
Dry plate, also known as gelatin process, is an improved type of photographic plate. It was invented by Dr. Richard L. Maddox in 1871, and by 1879 it was so well introduced that the first dry plate factory had been established...
. He also studied collotype
Collotype
Collotype is a dichromate-based photographic process invented by Alphonse Poitevin in 1856. and was used for large volume mechanical printing before the existence of cheaper offset lithography. It can produce results difficult to distinguish from metal-based photographic prints because of its...
printing in Albert Type Company.
Upon his return to Japan in 1884, Ogawa opened a photographic studio in Iidabashi
Iidabashi, Tokyo
is a district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It was in the former ward of Kōjimachi, which existed in Tokyo until 1947. Its postal code is 102-0072.-Etymology:...
(Kōjimachi
Kojimachi
is a neighborhood in Chiyoda, Tokyo.Prior to the arrival of Tokugawa Ieyasu, it was known as . The area developed as townspeople settled along the Kōshū Kaidō. In 1878 Kōjimachi became a ward in the city of Tokyo. It was the forerunner of Chiyoda which is now a special ward.The Kōjimachi ward was...
), the first in Tokyo. Four years later, he established the Tsukiji Kampan Seizō Kaisha ( Tsukiji dry plate
Dry plate
Dry plate, also known as gelatin process, is an improved type of photographic plate. It was invented by Dr. Richard L. Maddox in 1871, and by 1879 it was so well introduced that the first dry plate factory had been established...
manufacturing company), which manufactured dry plates for use by photographers. In 1889, he set up Japan's first collotype business, the Ogawa Shashin Seihan jo , also referred to as the K. Ogawa printing factory. In the same year, Ogawa worked as an editor for Shashin Shinpō , the only photographic journal available at the time, as well as for Kokka magazine . He printed both magazines using the collotype
Collotype
Collotype is a dichromate-based photographic process invented by Alphonse Poitevin in 1856. and was used for large volume mechanical printing before the existence of cheaper offset lithography. It can produce results difficult to distinguish from metal-based photographic prints because of its...
printing process.
Ogawa was a founding member of the Japan Photographic Society
Japan Photographic Society (19th century)
The was a Tokyo-based organization of photographers founded in 1889 that continued until the closing years of the nineteenth century.The JPS started as Japan's first organization for amateur photographers, although professionals too later joined. Of the fifty-six founding members, twenty-four were...
, which gathered photography amateurs from all around Japan. In 1891, he was charged with taking 100 pictures of Tokyo's most attractive geisha
Geisha
, Geiko or Geigi are traditional, female Japanese entertainers whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance.-Terms:...
, to commemorate the opening of the Ryōunkaku
Ryounkaku
The was Japan's first western-style skyscraper. It stood in the Asakusa district of Tokyo from 1890 until its demolition following the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923...
.
External links
A biographical timeline of Ogawa Kazumasa- A selection of pictures taken by Ogawa
- Flower collotypes by Ogawa
- Bachmann Eckenstein Art & Antiques, "Ogawa Kazuma" (Asia through the Lens). Accessed 20 January 2007.