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What did we do to our world.
In case anyone is wondering whether these are real colour photographs, the answer is no: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand-colouring#Japanese_hand-c...
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We're actually creating new unique and diverse cultures by adopting and remixing parts of the various cultures we encounter. Just looking at photos from other cultures (as you have done today) is a part of that process. This is a good thing. Some of my favorite things are different takes on a thing that came from another culture. Diversity really does make us stronger and it makes our lives richer. While it might be neat to see what results from cultures being totally isolated, I think it'd be much more interesting to see what results from bringing those cultures together.
The truth is that none of those "unique and diverse cultures" you're mourning the loss of came from anything different. Even japan's culture, although it was one of the more isolationist nations, was still massively influenced by other people/places. Technology accelerates the process, but the process itself is unchanged. It made 19th century japan what it was then, just like it made japan what it is now. It's just what humans do and always have done. There's no reason to feel sad about it.
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It's amazing to see pictures of feudal japan and think that some of the people who grew up there would be alive in the 1950s. Talk about witnessing progress.
That’s how I feel about present day humanity with regards to computer tech. I was born around the time of the 8086; my parents never really became fluent with computers. I was a nerd and got into computers as a teen, soon enough I had internet and then WiFi and now frickin smartphones hooked into LLMs. We’re the Information Age equivalent of those folks who spanned all the from the feudal era to riding Honda motorbik…
Meanwhile, earlier this week my otherwise-clever 12 yo tried to pinch zoom a paper map...
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In case anyone is wondering whether these are real colour photographs, the answer is no: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand-colouring#Japanese_hand-c...
I can't tell from that, was the photographer generally the painter? Or was the painter at least present when the photograph was taken?
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To be fair though, these photos are breathtaking. Pre-industrial era Japan is a place I'd love to visit and the history of this transformation is steeped in fear, modernizing in response to Western powers (look up Matthew Perry—naval officer, not the actor lol).
And this stuff is why I love either super creative science fiction or travelogues (and the formers are hard to find). You can try to imagine a brand new world or simply try to re-live our real and past world. To me that is even more amazing, as it often can be the door to understanding some things of today's cultures and/or discover lost little worlds. Currently I'm going through this book of a guy who cycled across…
Can you share the name & author of the book? I'll plug Wilfred Thesiger's Arabian Sands as an extraordinary deep dive into a world that's entirely disappeared in our lifetimes: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/825419.Arabian_Sands
Both books (not just Japan, he cycled around the world): https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1710