Torii at Nikko

In the 1870s, Kusakabe Kimbei worked with Baron Raimund von Stillfried, an Austrian-born photographer who moved to Japan and mentored many of his Japanese colleagues. Kimbei took over Stillfried’s studio when he returned to the West. Kimbei specialized in selling souvenir albums, and his talents as both a painter and photographer combined to create some of the highest quality Meiji-period images.Landscape and travel photography is particularly well represented in the collection and includes more than a thousand Meiji-era photographs of Japan. These include images by Europeans that characterize Japan from an outsider’s point of view, along with works by Japanese photographers that parallel the subject matter of ukiyo-e, popular woodblock prints, showing famous places, beautiful women, popular actors and entertainers, and traditional customs and legends. (“Highlights from the Collection: 45 Years at the Johnson,” curated by Stephanie Wiles and presented at the Johnson Museum January 27–July 22, 2018)