was a Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 artist and pioneering photographer. Originally from Kiryū

Kiryu, Gunma

is a city in Gunma, Japan, near the cities of Ōta and Ashikaga. Incorporated on March 1, 1921, Kiryū is considered both a city and part of the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan Area, although it is still widely thought of as a rural area...

, in what is now Gunma Prefecture

Gunma Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the northwest corner of the Kantō region on Honshu island. Its capital is Maebashi.- History :The remains of a Paleolithic man were found at Iwajuku, Gunma Prefecture, in the early 20th century and there is a public museum there.Japan was without horses until...

, she studied at an art school in Edo

Edo

, also romanized as Yedo or Yeddo, is the former name of the Japanese capital Tokyo, and was the seat of power for the Tokugawa shogunate which ruled Japan from 1603 to 1868...

 (now 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...

) where she met Shima Kakoku

Shima Kakoku

was a pioneering Japanese photographer and artist. He was born in modern-day Tochigi Prefecture. Possibly inspired by his father, who was an avid painter, in 1847 he entered an art school in Edo where he met Ryū , a fellow student. The two married in 1855 and soon began moving about the Kantō...

 (1827–1870), a fellow student. The two married in 1855 and soon began moving about the Kantō region

Kanto region

The is a geographical area of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. The region includes the Greater Tokyo Area and encompasses seven prefectures: Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Tokyo, Chiba, and Kanagawa. Within its boundaries, slightly more than 40 percent of the land area is the Kantō Plain....

, possibly exhibiting their works along the way. At some point the couple learned photography, and in the spring of 1864 Ryū photographed her husband, thereby creating the earliest known photograph by a Japanese woman. A wet-plate

Collodion process

The collodion process is an early photographic process. It was introduced in the 1850s and by the end of that decade it had almost entirely replaced the first practical photographic process, the daguerreotype. During the 1880s the collodion process, in turn, was largely replaced by gelatin dry...

 print of this portrait remains in the Shima family archives. The Shimas operated a photographic studio

Photographic studio

A photographic studio is both a workspace and a corporate body. As a workspace it is much like an artist’s studio, but providing space to take, develop, print and duplicate photographs. Photographic training and the display of finished photographs may also be accommodated in a photographic studio...

 in Edo in about 1865 to 1867, until Kakoku accepted a teaching position at Kaiseijo

Bansho Shirabesho

The ', or "Institute for the Study of Barbarian Books," was the Japanese institute charged with the translation and study of foreign books and publications in the late Edo Period. Founded in 1857, it functioned as a sort of bureau of the Tokugawa Shogunate. It was renamed ' in 1862, and ' in 1863...

. Following her husband's death in 1870, Ryū returned to Kiryū where she opened her own studio. She died in 1900.