Tomishige Rihei

was an important 19th and early 20th century Japanese photographer. [Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.] He was a pioneer of wet-plate photography in Japan and is noted for his excellent large-format, albumen landscapes. Tomishige is especially renowned in Kyūshū. [Bennett, "OJP", 292.]

In 1854 Tomishige left his hometown of Yanagawa for Nagasaki, where he became a merchant. When this career proved unsuccessful, in 1862 he became an apprentice to Kameya Tokujirō, an early local photographer. Later the same year Kameya left Nagasaki to open a photographic studio in Kyoto, but Tomishige continued his photographic studies under Ueno Hikoma. The two became lifelong friends. [Bennett, "PiJ", 84.] Returning to Yanagawa, Tomishige opened his own photographic studio in 1866, but the business was not a success and in 1868-1869 he once again worked as Kameya's apprentice in Nagasaki. [Bennett, "OJP", 292. Kameya had returned from Kyoto in 1868. Bennett, "PiJ", 84.]

In 1870 Tomishige decided to move to Tokyo, but he ended up in Kumamoto where he opened a studio – probably the first in the city. The local army garrison commissioned him to photograph Kumamoto Castle. The photographs from this commission are particularly significant since the castle was destroyed in the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion, and Tomishige's images are among the few of the structure before this destruction. Tomishige's studio was destroyed on the same occasion, but rebuilt the following year. Remarkably, the studio continues to this day, operated by his descendants. To mark 130 years of its existence, in 1993 the studio collaborated in an exhibition at the Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art (Kumamoto Kenritsu Bijutsukan) and the accompanying catalogue, "Tomishige shashinjo no 130-nen". [Bennett, "PiJ", 84.]

Notes

References

* Bennett, Terry. "Old Japanese Photographs: Collector's Data Guide." London: Quaritch, 2006. ISBN 0955085241 (hard)
* Bennett, Terry. "Photography in Japan: 1853–1912." Rutland, Vt: Charles E. Tuttle, 2006. ISBN 0804836337 (hard)
* Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, editor. "Nihon shashinka jiten" (nihongo2|日本写真家事典) / "328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers." Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000. ISBN 4-473-01750-8. ja icon Despite the alternative title in English, in Japanese only.