Kusakabe Kimbei (1841 — 1934) was a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese photographer. He usually went by his given name, Kimbei, because his clientele, mostly non-Japanese-speaking

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 foreign residents and visitors, found it easier to pronounce than his family name.

Kusakabe Kimbei worked with Felice Beato

Felice Beato

Felice Beato , also known as Felix Beato, was an Italian–British photographer. He was one of the first people to take photographs in East Asia and one of the first war photographers. He is noted for his genre works, portraits, and views and panoramas of the architecture and landscapes of Asia and...

 and Baron Raimund von Stillfried

Baron Raimund von Stillfried

Baron Raimund von Stillfried, also known as Baron Raimund von Stillfried-Rathenitz , was an Austrian photographer.He was a son of August Wilhelm Freiherr Stillfried von Rathenitz Baron Raimund von Stillfried, also known as Baron Raimund von Stillfried-Rathenitz (6 August 1839, Komotau  – 12...

 as a photographic colourist

Hand-colouring

Hand-colouring refers to any method of manually adding colour to a black-and-white photograph, generally either to heighten the realism of the photograph or for artistic purposes...

 and assistant before opening his own workshop in Yokohama

Yokohama

is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...

 in 1881 in the Benten-dōri quarter, and from 1889 operating in the Honmachi quarter. He also opened a branch in the Ginza

Ginza

is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, located south of Yaesu and Kyōbashi, west of Tsukiji, east of Yūrakuchō and Uchisaiwaichō, and north of Shinbashi.It is known as an upscale area of Tokyo with numerous department stores, boutiques, restaurants and coffeehouses. Ginza is recognized as one of the most...

 quarter of Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

.

Around 1885, he acquired the negatives of Felice Beato and of Stillfried, as well as those of Uchida Kuichi

Uchida Kuichi

was a pioneering Japanese photographer from Nagasaki. He was greatly respected as a portrait photographer and was the only photographer granted a sitting to photograph the Emperor Meiji....

. Kusakabe also acquired some of Ueno Hikoma

Ueno Hikoma

was a pioneer Japanese photographer, born in Nagasaki. He is noted for his fine portraits, often of important Japanese and foreign figures, and for his excellent landscapes, particularly of Nagasaki and its surroundings...

's negatives of Nagasaki.

He stopped working as a photographer in 1912-1913.

Most of his albums are mounted in accordion fashion.

External links

• Old Photos of Japan. Kusakabe Kimbei. A selection of photographs by Kusakabe, with footnoted descriptive text. Accessed 28 May 2009.
• I Photo Central. Kusakabe Kimbei. A selection of photographs by Kusakabe. Accessed 30 May 2008.
• Some of Kimbei Kusakabe's photos. At the Freer Gallery of Art
  Freer Gallery of Art
  The Freer Gallery of Art joins the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery to form the Smithsonian Institution's national museums of Asian art. The Freer contains art from East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Islamic world, the ancient Near East, and ancient Egypt, as well as a significant collection of...
  
   and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
  Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
  The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery joins the Freer Gallery of Art to form the Smithsonian Institution's national museums of Asian art. The Sackler celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2012....
  
  Archives.