Japan Office

Portrait photographs of Yukichi Fukuzawa and Ikuta Nozawa, both members of the 1862 Takenouchi mission to Europe, taken by Jacques-Philippe Potteau in Paris, France
Copyright Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

A new book has been published on a collection of historical photographs of Japan that belong to the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford. The book 『レンズが捉えた　オックスフォード大学所蔵幕府明治の日本』published by Yamakawa Shuppansha was written by Philip Grover, Assistant Curator of the Pitt Rivers Museum. It features highlights of the museum’s collection of photographs of mostly Meiji period Japan, and many of the photographs are being published for the first time. The book provides an important insight into the start of the modern era of Japan, when the country was opening up to the West. The photographs are taken by travellers and traders, archaeologists and anthropologists, and clearly demonstrate Europe’s fascination with Japan during the late nineteenth century.

The book is available direct from the publisher or from major retailers. For more information please see the Yamakawa Shuppansha website.

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