The Okinawa Soba photostream is filled with old photos of Meiji-era Japan, and most of those are hand-colored images. However, although MONOCHROME COLLOTYPES images are also found throughout the stream, even the single-pass inks used to produce them are usually colored. ♥ EXAMPLES OF MONOCHROME PHOTOS [USING COLORED INK] FROM JAPAN'S TAISHO ERA (1912-1926) : www.flickr.com/photos/okinawa-soba/sets/72157604286802916/ PURE BLACK & WHITE IN A WORLD OF HAND-COLORING It's easy to imagine that photographers back then were loathe to offer their images for sale with anything less than handy work of the artists and colorists who brush-applied their palette of transparent colors to the photos. After all, Japanese hand-colored photos were all the rage, and every tourist could not leave Japan without at least a handfuls of them. On the other hand, the ability to render a fine composition in grey-scale loveliness also took some skill, and those who "had the touch" sold their black-and-white images as is, often finding an appreciative audience for their work. The MEIJI ERA (1868-1912) images posted here were originally all photographed and sold in the COLLOTYPE POSTCARD format between 1903-05 --- this was during the last decade of the Meiji era. I'm sad to say that this particular photographer left his work unsigned (as many did in old Japan), and the models names are also unknown to me. The photographer was commissioned (or, his offered portfolio accepted) by postcard publisher NANIWA & CO. located in the Kanda district of Tokyo. GEISHA OUT OF CHARACTER The models are all GEISHA. Probably taken by arrangement with the particular Geisha House (Okiya) they were attached to, for these studio sessions they were stripped of their kimono, and their normal, classic hair-dos completely washed out. With that, the photographer placed them in his own world of dreams, using some twigs, flowers and lacy gauze. LIGHTING A STUDIO FOR A GEISHA DREAM To obtain the lighting effects in a world without electric studio lamps, he manipulated both skylight and window-light by means of blinds and partitions. Back at the Geisha House, I'm sure they had a few tales to tell about what the photographer put them through. 110 years later, here they are. ♥ MORE GEISHA WITH THEIR HAIR DOWN : www.flickr.com/photos/okinawa-soba/sets/72157605633613347/ * NOTE : Yes, I know I could have cheated, and simply converted hand-colored postcards to black-and-white ones with a post-processing touch of a button. You can do anything digitally these days. However, these are all genuine, original, black-and-white postcards. I posted two or three of these many years ago, but never got around to posting any others of this type. I still have a few more in my old postcard box, and should post them all just to get it out of the way. Replacing the images at the original Flickr pages breaks the link that Bloggers are using for the few former posts, so, I'm re-posting here in larger format for any artsy-crafty-etsy types who might want to download and use one (or all) to incorporate into their artsy-crafty creative things. As is usual around here, please feel free under Flickr rules to re-Blog the images for your own decorative or story-telling use. ♥ For Flickr males interested in dating any of these women, sorry, but you are too late. Cheers !