Eine Fotoreise durch das alte Japan (A Photographic Journey through Old Japan)
was published by Harenberg in 1985. The
author, Ludwig Hoerner (b. 1919),
claims that the photographs were taken by an unknown European traveller to
Japan in the late 19th century.
The 70 hand-tinted black and white photographs are from the author’s own
collection and from the Niedersächsische Landesbibliothek (the public library
of Lower Saxony), known today as the Gottfried
Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek (GWLB) after the 17th century
polymath and philosopher whose manuscripts and correspondence are held in their
archive. Ingrid Siegmund-Rux wrote an afterword to the book that provides
readers with the historical context of the rapid modernisation of Japan during
the Meiji Era.
Hoerner is an
autodidactic researcher and author with a passion for 19th century
photography: both the photographs themselves and the history of the
photographic industry. He
has published a number of books on the subject, most notably Das photographische Gewerbe in Deutschland
1839–1914 (The Photographic Industry
in Germany, 1839-1914, GFW-Verlag, 1989).
At the time of the book’s publication, Ingrid Siegmund-Rux appears to have been a librarian. I have found little biographical information about her online apart from the
minutes of the European Association
of Sinological Librarians annual conference in 1986, which lists her as
representing the Universitätsbibliothek und Technische
Informationsbibliothek Hannover (German National
Library of Science and Technology / University Library Hannover).
Most of the
photographs in this collection were taken in and around Tokyo and Yokohama including tourist destinations for Tokyoites such as Mt. Fuji, Nikko and Hakone. There are a few images from Kansai (Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Lake Biwa), as well as images of Nagoya, Nagasaki, and
Tomioka (a ghost town today as it is the epicentre of the Fukushima Daichi
nuclear disaster). There are also a large
number of posed photographs clearly designed to educate Europeans about the
customs of Japan (tea ceremony, music and dance, ikebana, etc) and the occupations
of people from all strata of Japanese society (silk traders, acrobats, a pipe-maker,
sumo wrestlers, a shoemaker, a Buddhist priest, samurai, etc.).
Here are
some of the highlights (clock on photos to view larger / as a slideshow):
 |
| Cover of one of Hoerner's photo albums |
 |
| Yokohama/Mississippi Bay |
 |
| Theatre in Yokohama |
 |
| Tokyo |
 |
| Hakone |
 |
| Tomioka, Fukushima |
 |
| Girls having a party - the author is amused by the girl in the middle with the bowler hat |
 |
| travelling gardeners |
2015 Cathy
Munroe Hotes
.
