From June 1 to August 31, 2019, the Photo History Museum at Fujifilm Square will mount an exhibition of works by the photographer Seibei Kajima, who was active in the Meiji period (1868—1912). The exhibition is the first in Japan to introduce the career and achievements of Kajima, the “Millionaire Photographer,” who contributed much to the world of photography in Japan.
Seibei Kajima came from an affluent background, which allowed him to invest his assets and half a lifetime in photography in the mid-Meiji period. He was eighth in the line of proprietors of Kajimaya, the foremost sake wholesaler in Japan located at Reiganjima Shinkawa in Tokyo (presently, Shinkawa, Chuo-ku). A wealthy merchant house, Kajimaya was on a par with the then leading department stores of Echigoya, Daimaru, and Shirokiya. The chance discovery in a warehouse of a camera that had belonged to one of his predecessors inspired Kajima to immerse himself in photography. In the space of a few years, he made his name by financing the Tsukiji Kanpan Seizojo (Tsukiji Dry Plate Manufacturing Company), the Nihon Shashinkai (Japan Photographic Society), and the Dai Nihon Shashin Hinpyokai (Greater Japan Photography Critique Society). He also opened the extravagant Genrokukan photographic studio, which was equipped with a revolving stage and arc lights.
In the 1880s and 1890s, he became known as the “Millionaire Photographer” because he tried his hand at unprecedented forms of photo production, using custom-made large-format cameras to take oversized photographs or X-ray photographs, and magnesium flash to take photographs at night. Kajima’s contributions to the development of photography in Japan were significant, but it was his exceptional largesse that was the talk of the town at the time.
In 1890, Kajima asked Ponta, then an apprentice geisha at Tamanoya in Shinbashi, to pose for his posters, a coincidence that led to them spending their later lives together. In 1896, his lavish spending habits caused relations with the Kajima family to break down. He spent the remainder of his life with Ponta who supported him through his dramatic final years when he had to close the photographic studio and lost a finger in an explosion.
Focusing on Kajima’s appeal, the exhibition brings together a range of his work including Mt. Fuji (reproduction), a masterpiece that was presented to the Imperial Household, a stage photograph (reproduction) of Ichikawa Danjuro IX in Shibaraku, one of the Kabuki Juhachiban (Eighteen Famous Kabuki Plays), the glamorous figures of Ponta, the talented geisha, and Oen, the mistress of Kajima’s younger brother Seizaburo, and applied arts photography printed on silk screen. We hope you will enjoy this glimpse of the magnificent world of Seibei Kajima, not a mere hobby photographer but someone whose accomplishments contributed in significant ways to the world of photography in Japan.