Type: Albumen - Hand Colored
Image Size: 8 1/4 x 10 1/2 in
Title/Subject: "661 Daibuthu at Kamakura"
Photograph Studio: Tamamura Kozaburo
Fuente: Baxley Stamps
"Kozaburo Tamamura (1856-1923?) began in the photography business with a shop in Asakusa, Tokyo in 1874. In 1883 he moved to Yokohama and opened a studio where he prospered. He specialized in "souvenir photo albums" of Japan which were exported. He also conducted portrait photography in his studio. He is regarded as one of the originators of "Yokohama Shashin" (tourist photographs). It appears the zenith of his production was in the 1890s. He produced albumen photographs as well as collotypes. These were often hand colored. It is my observation (Baxley Stamps) that his collotype photographs were generally of the small format. They were in the nature of 4~5 x 5.5~7 [inch] in image area size. Kosaburo Tamamura export albums often sometimes came with "grass type covers" as well as in lacquer over wood covers.
It is said that in the 1890s Tamamura employed over 100 colorists to fill a special order (sometimes stated to be 180,000) for hand colored photographs. It is widely accepted that these were the albumen photographs tipped into Brinkley's Japan Described and Illustrated set which was actually published in the United States.(Baxley Stamps)
