Books
Okinawa Photograph Album, First and Second Series: Two Volumes by Soichiro Sakaguchi, 1925
Okinawa Photograph Album — First and Second Series, Two Volumes, 1925
A pre-war photographic album of Okinawa in two volumes, the first and second series, compiled by Soichiro Sakaguchi and published in 1925. Together the volumes assemble a wide-ranging pictorial survey of the Ryukyu islands as they stood in the Taisho years — the old Shuri castle and its precincts, the sacred groves and great banyan trees, the coastlines and gorges of Iriomote and the outer islands, the mangrove forests, the markets and harbours, and scenes of island life and craft from sugar cultivation to bonito processing.
Among the plates are the former Shuri castle main hall, the ancient akagi tree of Hantan hill outside the castle, the banyan of Yagaji island, the mangrove forests of the Nakara river, scenes at Nago and Watanji harbour, and views across Yaeyama and Miyako — a panorama of pre-war Okinawan landscape, architecture, and custom recorded before the transformations of the mid-century.
Period photographic albums of Okinawa from the 1920s are now genuinely scarce, and as a primary visual record of the islands before the war the set is a documentary source of real depth, of clear interest to historians of Okinawa, of Japanese landscape and ethnography, and of early twentieth-century photography.
A genuine and evocative pair of the period, well suited to a serious collection of Japanese art, aesthetics, and historical materials.
Offered by KT Vintage, drawing on decades of trusted international sales to discerning collectors and institutions across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania.
Description & Historical Context
Okinawa Photograph Album — First and Second Series, Two Volumes, 1925
A pre-war photographic album of Okinawa in two volumes, the first and second series, compiled by Soichiro Sakaguchi and published in 1925. Together the volumes assemble a wide-ranging pictorial survey of the Ryukyu islands as they stood in the Taisho years — the old Shuri castle and its precincts, the sacred groves and great banyan trees, the coastlines and gorges of Iriomote and the outer islands, the mangrove forests, the markets and harbours, and scenes of island life and craft from sugar cultivation to bonito processing.
Among the plates are the former Shuri castle main hall, the ancient akagi tree of Hantan hill outside the castle, the banyan of Yagaji island, the mangrove forests of the Nakara river, scenes at Nago and Watanji harbour, and views across Yaeyama and Miyako — a panorama of pre-war Okinawan landscape, architecture, and custom recorded before the transformations of the mid-century.
Period photographic albums of Okinawa from the 1920s are now genuinely scarce, and as a primary visual record of the islands before the war the set is a documentary source of real depth, of clear interest to historians of Okinawa, of Japanese landscape and ethnography, and of early twentieth-century photography.
A genuine and evocative pair of the period, well suited to a serious collection of Japanese art, aesthetics, and historical materials.
Offered by KT Vintage, drawing on decades of trusted international sales to discerning collectors and institutions across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania.
Collation
| Category | Books |
|---|---|
| Condition | acceptable |
| SKU | N0000005259 |
