How colorized photos helped introduce Japan to the world

  • last year
The best hand-colored photos of the 19th century came from Japan.
Transcript
00:00- [Narrator] Pretty much as
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undefined:undefinedno one outside of Japan knew
00:32what the country looked like.
00:34The government closed the borders in 1635
00:37to halt growing colonial influence,
00:39mostly from Catholic missionaries
00:41that took hold in the late 1500s.
00:44Leaving the country was forbidden.
00:46Those who tried were executed.
00:48And, with some exceptions,
00:50contact with the outside world was cut off
00:53for two centuries.
00:54But in 1854, a US Naval
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undefined:undefinednew at the time,
01:16and became a lucrative
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undefined:undefinedforbidden and beyond reach,
01:44and all of a sudden now somehow knowable.
01:47The technology of photography
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undefined:undefinedadmires photographic portraits
02:12with a stamp on the back
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undefined:undefinedto really take advantage
02:31of color photography on a
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undefined:undefinedphotographic prints,
02:52tapping into an expertise
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undefined:undefinedlooking more like paintings
03:07than photographs,
03:09Japanese artists mostly used watercolors.
03:12- [David] It created
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undefined:undefinedthem even more collectible.
03:36But many of these photos,
03:38especially the ones staged in studios,
03:40have artificial elements, like
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undefined:undefinedJapanese apprentices
04:06that had made foreign-operated
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undefined:undefinedapplying watercolors,
04:30and packaging them in
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undefined:undefinedbackground to simulate wind.
04:58These techniques drew
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undefined:undefinedimportantly, subject matter,
05:15I think you can see a
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undefined:undefinedof amateur photography
05:36in the 20th century caused a decline
05:38of studio souvenir photography in Japan.
05:41Kodak introduced the
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undefined:undefinedshifted their business model
06:03to accommodate a new amateur market:
06:05selling supplies and offering
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undefined:undefinedJapanese culture.
06:22- [David] That image of the
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undefined:undefinedwoodblock print does not.
06:44(light music)