The photo of the tomb of the Byakkotai has filled me with great sorrow… I imagine you are correct in that he must of felt emotional visiting and photographing the monument of those who fought and died on his behalf. Thank you for teaching me about these historical people.
When I see pictures taken by former shogun, I can feel his freedom, joyful and aesthethic through pictures he capture. Thanks for sharing amazing story. Cheers.
Thank you for such an informative and interesting video. It’s good to see that those important photos have been preserved. I hope to visit Japan later this year.
One of the important things to think about is that it's not like he was talking around with a rangefinder or something similar in size, 35mm film wasn't really used for photography until the first Leica around 1913 or so. It would be interesting to see what kind of cameras he used. Relatively small cameras like the Pocket Kodak weren't released until 1895, well after when some of these images were taken. It's interesting to think of him, a man that not that long ago was the most powerful, just walking among the people and capturing their every day life, including the smiles of the children in that one shot. I'm curious how many people were actually aware of whom the man holding the strange box taking their photo was. I feel like there has to be some sense of humbleness for him to do that. Plenty of people in similar positions in the past, or present for that matter, wouldn't be caught anywhere near the fields or places common people were.
