Photographs of 19th Century Japan • Hacker News Board

Re: Photographs of 19th Century Japan

#121

Post by WalterBright » Thu, Apr 10, 2025, 5:20 PM UTC

ben_w wrote: post #108

FalseNutrition wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not buying this. All these claims rely on some nebulous "poor people" who were kept hidden away somewhere. There is no good reason to doubt that these photos show regular people, and the buildings they lived in.

Mm. When I go on holiday, I take notice of mundane things in the new place that are different to mundane things in my normal life. Street furniture, pylons, graffiti, the contents of supermarket shelves, dusty unpaved roads[0]. But over the years I have come to realise that I'm very odd . When you go on holiday, how many photos do you take of regular people, vs. tourist attractions? Or, in reverse, do you know regula…

My dad took quite a few pictures of everyday life in Japan after WW2, including everyday life on the military bases.

The same during the Korean War he was a pilot in.

Re: Photographs of 19th Century Japan

#122

Post by WalterBright » Thu, Apr 10, 2025, 5:21 PM UTC

FalseNutrition wrote: post #103

tokioyoyo wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re really underplaying how awful the life was for an average person in before-times. Sure, pretty buildings, different cultures, and etc. were more prominent. But also an average person would never be able to enjoy those in their lifetimes.

I'm not buying this. All these claims rely on some nebulous "poor people" who were kept hidden away somewhere. There is no good reason to doubt that these photos show regular people, and the buildings they lived in.

I have a couple books full of photos of the Civil War. There are a lot of ordinary soldier and camp life pictures in it.

Re: Photographs of 19th Century Japan

#123

Post by johnea » Thu, Apr 10, 2025, 5:25 PM UTC

Wow! Spectacular images!

Seeing the captured images, instead of drawings or verbal description, is such a window back in time.

Re: Photographs of 19th Century Japan

#124

Post by danans » Thu, Apr 10, 2025, 5:31 PM UTC

The mailman had a pretty wild costume

Re: Photographs of 19th Century Japan

#125

Post by yannis » Thu, Apr 10, 2025, 5:51 PM UTC

KPGv2 wrote: post #112

yannis wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree diversity makes us richer, and historically there was always cultural diffusion, what I lament though is that this is now partially done by multinational corporations, wiping out local traditions.

> this is now partially done by multinational corporations, wiping out local traditions. And it used to be partially done by empires, wiping out local traditions. And powerful warlords would do it, too. Monarchs, etc. Hard to say Western Europe doesn't look the way it does in large part because of this multi continental , millennia-old institution called the Catholic Church!

Agreed and besides Europe the Catholic Church destroyed much of the history of Mesoamerica. But, part of "culture" is our history as well, it just saddens me though thinking what we are going to leave behind for future generations.

Re: Photographs of 19th Century Japan

#126

Post by mvk666 » Thu, Apr 10, 2025, 6:34 PM UTC

wow, my great grandfather fought in WWI, got captured and went through Russia, Japan, Hawaii, Panama and back to Europe. He collected postcards like these, we still have them

Re: Photographs of 19th Century Japan

#127

Post by debesyla » Thu, Apr 10, 2025, 9:44 PM UTC

KPGv2 wrote: post #112

yannis wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree diversity makes us richer, and historically there was always cultural diffusion, what I lament though is that this is now partially done by multinational corporations, wiping out local traditions.

> this is now partially done by multinational corporations, wiping out local traditions. And it used to be partially done by empires, wiping out local traditions. And powerful warlords would do it, too. Monarchs, etc. Hard to say Western Europe doesn't look the way it does in large part because of this multi continental , millennia-old institution called the Catholic Church!

And even language itself changes how we think. We can blame the romans for making english the lingua franca.

Re: Photographs of 19th Century Japan

#128

Post by maxtaqo » Thu, Apr 10, 2025, 10:41 PM UTC

Ghibli's films, especially Neighbour Totoro, depict Japan in the 1960s, and it is often muttered by old people after watching Hayao Miyazaki's films that this was the best point of landscape and modern affluence.

Re: Photographs of 19th Century Japan

#129

Post by thewileyone » Fri, Apr 11, 2025, 2:11 AM UTC

Striking how clean and organized everything looks in the photos. It's really ingrained in the Japanese psyche.

Re: Photographs of 19th Century Japan

#130

Post by pilaf » Fri, Apr 11, 2025, 2:41 AM UTC

voidUpdate wrote: post #79

pilaf wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These photos look colorized. Likely not the original colors of those robes.

As stated in TFA, the pictures were originally black and white and were colourised at the time. I cant find a record of who colourised them or when, but it sems to me like they were colourised shortly after by the original photographer, and as such the colours would be reasonably accurate. You can see lightness and texture changes that would imply to me that there were changes in the material at the time of the pictu…

There are several other colorized versions of that same photo online, all with very different color choices, so I wouldn't be too sure about the accuracy of TFA's version:

https://www.meijishowa.com/photography/6451/190102-0009-pp-b...

https://sekiei.nichibun.ac.jp/KSA/en/detail/?gid=G0203359

https://www.album-online.com/detail/en/NDAzZGUwMA/two-buddhi...

There's also more information about the exact version from the article here [1], although it doesn't clarify whether the photographer and the person who colorized it are separate people.

1: https://sova.si.edu/record/fsa.a1999.35/ref484