"The confections made from a paste are blown like glass into various shapes, and allowed to harden" --- quoted from the 1897 caption. This studio shot is interesting for a number of reasons. For one thing, the poses are not standard --- from the uplifted chin of the little girl, to the truly puffed up cheeks of the confectioner in the act of blowing a bubble of sugary delight --- and the context they provide with their well-worn, everyday garments next to the beat-up portable "Candy Store" makes this image valuable for capturing a seldom seen moment of a Child's life in old Japan. Dragging such scenes and real characters of life off the street and into the studio was a good thing, and in no way robs the individual elements of their historic romance. ******************************************* The above is one of four, small albumen prints that I’m posting together. They were printed and hand colored in Japan over 110 years ago, then pasted into the first volume of the 1897 EMPEROR’S EDITION of Captain Brinkley’s multi-volume JAPAN – DESCRIBED AND ILLUSTRATED BY THE JAPANESE. Brinkley was not the author, but rather the editor and organizer of the publishing project that enlisted the writing and artistic talents of hundreds of native Japanese. Although Yokohama photographer KOZABURO TAMAMURA was given the task to come up with the hundreds of thousands of real photographs needed for the pasted-in illustrations of the better editions of the sets, he did not do it alone, and enlisted the help of many other photographers. Currently, the work of Tamamura’s close friend and neighbor, T. ENAMI is the most identified photographer of the 260 real photos, with the work of KIMBEI KUSAKABE following close behind. Things are more fully described at this flickr post : www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/3340015545/ The four images posted in this group are representative of the twenty postcard-sized prints found pasted throughout the text of volume one. There are also six additional, full-sized albumen prints in each volume, matted and inserted with their own protective cover sheets. In the same volume one, the first large albumen illustration is by T. ENAMI, and may be seen here : www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/2723925755/ Although this particular job was a financial boon to the photographers, quality of the prints often suffered due to the “hurry up” nature of the print order --- the first installment required over 180,000 prints that the publisher far away in Boston wanted….uhhhh, like NOW ! That meant almost 700 individual copies of all 260 different photo-illustrations had to be sun-printed and hand-colored. To do this, Tamamura ended up hiring over 350 photo-techs and colorists to help out ! Those were the good ol’ days of hands-on photography. Now, over 110 years later, these hand-made photographs printed on paper coated with albumen from chicken eggs are still with us. Where will our own fancy digital files be 110 years from now ? In the meantime, here’s some more old photos from the BRINKLY SETS that I’ve posted in the past : www.flickr.com/search/?w=24443965@N08&q=Brinkley+Set&...