Images in Translation: Ogawa Kazumasa’s Photographic Books

Among the key figures in the Japanese photography world at the turn of the nineteenth century, Ogawa Kazumasa (1860-1929) stands out for the diversity of his subject matter, his innovations in printing technology, and the broad reach of his photographic publications. Ogawa published an estimated 300 photographic books from the early 1890s through the 1910s. The majority were aimed at English-speaking audiences, with topics ranging from Japanese beauties to scenic locations to a visual survey of historical Japanese dress. These volumes circulated widely at the time, playing a significant role in exposing Westerners to Japanese culture. Ogawa also published books in Japanese, as well as bilingual Japanese-English volumes. An intriguing aspect of his oeuvre is that certain photographs appear repeatedly across a number of books issued in alternate language editions or with very different subject matters. The captions for these recirculated images could vary significantly depending on the source text. How did the relevant audience (Western or Japanese) understand these images, and how did the differing texts help to convey messages specific to that particular audience? Taking a selection of the most frequently repeated images as a point of departure, this paper examines the relationship between text and image in these differing photographic publications and linguistic contexts, seeking to analyze and better understand the role of Ogawa’s books in mediating interactions between East and West in the Meiji era (1868-1912).