was the older

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 ...

ese

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 ...

of that name. Suzuki was born as the third son of a family named Takahashi) in Iwashina () (now Matsuzaki,

Shizuoka Shizuoka can refer to: * Shizuoka Prefecture, a Japanese prefecture * Shizuoka (city), the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture * Shizuoka Airport * Shizuoka Domain, the name from 1868 to 1871 for Sunpu Domain, a predecessor of Shizuoka Prefecture ...

) in July 1835. Both his parents died when he was young, and in 1854 he moved into the Suzuki family (by the custom known as ''muko-iri'' []) in Shimoda, Shizuoka, Shimoda when he married Suzuki Yoshichi's daughter, working in the family ''aramono'' business. The same year, a major tsunami (resulting from one of the Ansei great earthquakes) destroyed the building and ended the business. At first working in

sericulture Sericulture, or silk farming, is the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk. Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, ''Bombyx mori'' (the caterpillar of the domestic silkmoth) is the most widely used and intensively studie ...

, Suzuki often traveled to

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 ...

, where he soon apprenticed at the Yokohama photographic studio of

Shimooka Renjō was a Japanese photographer''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 photo ...

in 1867. In 1872–1873 he was commissioned by J. R. Black, publisher of ''

The Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

'', to produce a photographic series documenting rural life. Images from this series continued to appear in Suzuki albums until the 1880s. In November 1873 Suzuki set up his own studio, producing portraits and souvenir albums. The same year, Okamoto Keizō , a successor of his at Shimooka's studio, married Suzuki's daughter, and Okamoto joined the Suzuki family (''muko-iri'' again). Okamoto became Suzuki Shin'ichi II, and the older photographer thereupon changed his own name. About this time Suzuki may have studied photography under

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 ...

. In 1884 he moved to a newly built, western-style two-storey studio. A branch studio was opened in Kudanzaka,

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 ...

and operated by Suzuki II. Suzuki's photographs were highly acclaimed and he won an award for them in 1877, and in 1889 he and

Maruki Riyō was a prominent Japanese photographer during the late-Meiji period.Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography: . Maruki opened his first studio in the Uchisaiwaicho district of Tokyo in 1880, and his business continued up until the early 1920s.< ...

were commissioned to photograph

Emperor Meiji , also called or , was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession. Reigning from 13 February 1867 to his death, he was the first monarch of the Empire of Japan and presided over the Meiji era. He was the figur ...

and his wife. Purchasers of his works were mostly foreign residents and visitors, and in addition to sales from his own studio, Suzuki's photographs were distributed by Sargent, Farsari & Co. His studio was advertised as early as 1880, in '' Keeling's Guide to Japan'', and subsequently in the '' Japan Directory'' until 1908, offering

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, photographs (including large format hand-coloured

albumen print The albumen print, also called albumen silver print, was published in January 1847 by Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard, and was the first commercially exploitable method of producing a photographic print on a paper base from a negative. It us ...

s), and Suzuki's innovation of photographs printed on porcelain, the latter selling for 12 yen each. These advertisements indicate that from 1893 the Yokohama studio was run by I. S. Suzuki, that is, Suzuki's son Izaburō. Suzuki Shin'ichi retired in 1892 and he died in December 1918 at the age of 83.Bennett, ''PiJ'', 171.

Notes

References

* Bennett, Terry. ''Old Japanese Photographs: Collector's Data Guide'' London: Quaritch, 2006. (hard) * Bennett, Terry. ''Photography in Japan: 1853–1912'' Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle, 2006. (hard) * ''Nihon no shashinka'' () / ''Biographic Dictionary of Japanese Photography.'' Tokyo: Nichigai Associates, 2005. . Pp. 223–4. Despite the English-language alternative title, all in Japanese. * Kaneko Ryūichi. "Suzuki Shin'ichi". ''Nihon shashinka jiten'' () / ''328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers.'' Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000. . P.186. Despite the English-language alternative title, all in Japanese. * Yokoe, Fuminori. 'Part 3-3. Yokoyama Matsusaburo (1838-1884).' In ''The Advent of Photography in Japan/Shashin torai no koro'', Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, and Hakodate Museum of Art, Hokkaido, eds. (Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture; Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; Hokkaido: Hakodate Museum of Art, 1997).

External links

Suzuki
within the Matsuzaki town site {{DEFAULTSORT:Suzuki, Shin'ichi 01 Japanese photographers 1835 births 1918 deaths