Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Photographs of 19th Century Japan

cosmographia.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–137 of 137 posts

Re: Photographs of 19th Century Japan

#131

Post by FalseNutrition »

tokioyoyo wrote: post #107
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.

Both of my grandpas (who have passed away long ago), would beg to differ. People, especially when taking photos wasn't basically free, don't take photos of ordinary things. If you see 1 rose among 500 tulips, that will catch your eye. And vice versa. Poor people were not hidden away, it's just their lives weren't that beautiful to be shown and paraded around.

Most of the people in the photos seem be ordinary, working class people. Even buddhist monks, who swore to live in poverty, celibacy and to avoid food that was too flavorful.

It isn't like we don't have records of ordinary people, even the homeless, or criminals. It's more like people like you claim the existence of a whole another kind of "poor people", who were supposedly the absolute majority, who suffered somewhere, completely ignored by everybody, and worked long hours every day on... being poor? It just doesn't seem to add up.

Re: Photographs of 19th Century Japan

#132

Post by FalseNutrition »

MrRed wrote: post #88

You'll probably enjoy this project https://hikaria.org/ we have been working on with the Guimet museum in Paris ( https://www.guimet.fr/fr ) to showcase 19th century Japanese photos. We are building that website to oroganize various collections, and allow users to search through them using object detection (Clip model)

It doesn't work. The photos don't load.

Re: Photographs of 19th Century Japan

#133

Post by layer8 »

gramie wrote: post #115

It's interesting that in the photo of three girls, they are smiling broadly. I had thought that traditional Japanese culture (and still, often, today) women tended to cover their mouths, and displaying teeth was considered somewhat vulgar or even obscene. At one point, women even blackened their teeth! Maybe that wasn't universal, or the photographer convinced the women to show their smiles.

I don’t think that was generally the case. Your comment reminds me of this 1937 footage I saw recently: https://youtu.be/o4xkucZ40Fw?t=1m50s

Re: Photographs of 19th Century Japan

#134

Post by damnitbuilds »

triceratops wrote: post #109
damnitbuilds wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm. If we want to preserve our diverse cultures, then we have to do more to defend our own cultures against immigrants imposing their cultures over them. How you do that without being outright racist is the tough part. And I say this as a migrated child of migrants.

> we have to do more to defend our own cultures What does "defend" mean? > against immigrants imposing their cultures How can a minority "impose" its culture? > How you do that without being outright racist You can start by not saying "defending" and "imposing". There's no attack. "Defending" only means enjoying and promoting all the elements of your existing culture - language, music, entertainment, food, dress, arc…

You can start by discussing things and not quibbling over terms.

> What does "defend" mean?

Keep it from being replaced by another culture. I think we all understand that.

> How can a minority "impose" its culture?

By being locally dominant. By catering to people from their own community who prefer not to join the local culture. By providing cheaper/better/more profitable things to the locals than the local culture does.

Re: Photographs of 19th Century Japan

#135

Post by damnitbuilds »

yannis wrote: post #99
damnitbuilds wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm. If we want to preserve our diverse cultures, then we have to do more to defend our own cultures against immigrants imposing their cultures over them. How you do that without being outright racist is the tough part. And I say this as a migrated child of migrants.

How do immigrants impose their cultures on a host country? Can you give some examples? Historically populations mix by migration, wars, slavery, and trading networks. It is a process that cannot be stopped, maybe slowed down or accelerated. The disappointing aspect of it, is now this process has been hijacked by corporations. How did the West acquire a culture of coffee or coffee-shops? Now is McDonalds and Costa Caf…

> How did the West acquire a culture of coffee or coffee-shops?

For that matter, how did those coffee shops displace tea rooms?

Re: Photographs of 19th Century Japan

#136

Post by ekianjo »

decimalenough wrote: post #91
ekianjo wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the central part of Kyoto. You can walk in areas like Gion that have mostly remained the same for centuries. Of course as cities get bigger you get concrete. just like other cities Kyoto has grown in the 20th century and at some point you need concrete instead of wood

Gion and Sannenzaka are the very definition of touristy Kyoto.

They are touristy because they are authentic in the first place.

Re: Photographs of 19th Century Japan

#137

Post by triceratops »

damnitbuilds wrote: post #134
triceratops wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we have to do more to defend our own cultures What does "defend" mean? > against immigrants imposing their cultures How can a minority "impose" its culture? > How you do that without being outright racist You can start by not saying "defending" and "imposing". There's no attack. "Defending" only means enjoying and promoting all the elements of your existing culture - language, music, entertainment, food, dress, arc…

You can start by discussing things and not quibbling over terms. > What does "defend" mean? Keep it from being replaced by another culture. I think we all understand that. > How can a minority "impose" its culture? By being locally dominant. By catering to people from their own community who prefer not to join the local culture. By providing cheaper/better/more profitable things to the locals than the local culture d…

You're going to have to be more specific and maybe give some examples. I don't see a path from cheaper produce at some ethnic stores (the only part of your comment connected to reality) to total cultural replacement.
Post reply on HN