was a Japanese

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

''328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers'' / ''Nihon shashinka jiten'' (). Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000. . Despite the alternative title in English, this book is in Japanese only. and was one of the first professional photographers in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. He opened the first commercial photography studio in

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

, and in Japan he is widely considered the father of Japanese photography.Bennett, Terry. (2006). ''Photography in Japan 1853–1912.'' North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle Publishing.

Early life

He was born with the name Sakurada Hisanosuke Tucker, A. W., et al. (2003). ''The history of Japanese photography.'' Houston, TX: Yale University Press and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. . in Shimoda on the

Izu Peninsula The is a large mountainous peninsula with a deeply indented coastline to the west of Tokyo on the Pacific coast of the island of Honshu, Japan. Formerly known as Izu Province, Izu peninsula is now a part of Shizuoka Prefecture. The peninsul ...

in central

Honshū , historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separa ...

to a

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

family. When he was thirteen years old he moved to Edo (

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

) to study

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

and serve as an apprentice to a stock merchant. In 1843 he served in the Shimoda artillery battery where he may have been first introduced to

daguerreotype Daguerreotype (; french: daguerréotype) was the first publicly available photographic process; it was widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process. Invented by Louis Daguerre an ...

s from the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. However, some accounts say that he was not exposed to photography until he returned to Edo to study art, becoming a student of Kanō Tōsen Nakanobu, a well-established painter in service to the shogunate. These accounts report that he saw a Dutch photograph at the home of a Tokugawa clan member. He began studying photography when he could, and moved to

in 1859 or 1860 where he would begin his career in photography.

Photography

Renjō acquired his first

camera A camera is an Optics, optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), ...

in 1861 from the American photographer John Wilson by trading it for a painting of a panoramic scene. Shortly thereafter he abandoned his studies in painting and pursued photography as a career. He opened a photographic studio in

in 1862, one of the first in the country.Gordenker, Alice. (2014, March 26).
Shimooka Renjo, back in focus.
''Japan Times''. Accessed September 27, 2015. He continued to open studios in the city, primarily focusing on

portrait A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...

ure, and changed his name to Shimooka Renjō in 1865. He taught many photographic students and apprentices before leaving his businesses to his pupils in 1877. He was elected to the Japan Photographic Society in 1893.

Significance

Renjō’s significance to the history of photography lies in the fact that he helped introduce and spread photography throughout industrializing,

Meiji-era The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

Japan. His commercial studio in Yokohama was thought to be the absolute first in the country for many years.Ozawa, Takesi. (1981). The history of early photography in Japan. ''History of Photography'', 5 (4), 285-303. Recent discoveries have found that Ukai Gyokusen had opened an

ambrotype The ambrotype (from grc, ἀμβροτός — “immortal”, and — “impression”) also known as a collodion positive in the UK, is a positive photograph on glass made by a variant of the wet plate collodion process. Like a pr ...

studio in Edo only a year or two before Renjō opened his studio in 1862.

Ueno Hikoma was a pioneer Japanese photographer, born in Nagasaki. He is noted for his fine portraits, often of important Japanese and foreign figures, and for his excellent landscapes, particularly of Nagasaki and its surroundings. Ueno was a major figure ...

, a chemist, began operating a studio in

Nagasaki is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. It became the sole port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hidden Christian Sites in the ...

later the same year. Despite this, Renjō was still one of the nation’s first professional photographers, and one of the most successful. He opened several additional studios and businesses across

during his career. (Other contemporaries of Renjō included

Uchida Kuichi was a pioneering Japanese photographer from Nagasaki. He was greatly respected as a portrait photographer and was the only photographer granted a sitting to photograph the Emperor Meiji. Uchida was adopted at the age of 13, following his fath ...

and

Shima Kakoku was a pioneering Japanese photographer and artist. He was born in modern-day Tochigi Prefecture. Possibly inspired by his father, who was an avid painter, in 1847 he entered an art school in Edo (now Tokyo) where he met Ryū (surname unknown; ...

.) In addition to being a pioneer of the art, Renjō also helped to establish photography in Japan by teaching it to many of his other countrymen. For example, he was the teacher of the great photographer

Yokoyama Matsusaburō was a pioneering Japanese photographer, artist, lithographer and teacher. Yokoyama was born Yokoyama Bunroku () in Iturup (then under Japanese control) on 10 October 1838. Early in his life, Yokoyama and his family moved to Hakodate, where in 1 ...

, starting in 1864. He also taught many other students including: Usui Shusaburo, Esaki Reiji, and Suzuki Shinichi I and II. He was honored by the government of Tokyo before his death for his influence, and was elected to join the Japan Photographic Society in 1893.

References

External links

Tokyo Digital Museum

Japan Times article - Shimooka Renjo: Back in Focus
{{DEFAULTSORT:Renjo, Shimooka Japanese photographers 1823 births 1914 deaths

Early life

Photography

Significance

Further reading

References

External links