Between the Covers

Hardcover. Three oblong photo albums. Quarto, octavo, and 32mo. Two have accordion style bindings; one papercovered boards with "Photographs" in gilt on the front and the other in green cloth with "Album" in gilt on the front. The third album is string-tied with decorative cloth boards in green, purple, blue, and black. The albums contain 409 gelatin silver photographs (with four hand-colored), measuring between 2.25" x 1.5" and 10.75" x 8.25". Overall very good with some of according hinges starting, scattered spots, and general rubbing, particular to the quarto album. A collection of three Japanese albums of a young man who attended the Ritsumeikan Commercial School in Kyoto and later served in the Japanese military following the First World War. The largest album is captioned throughout in Japanese but curiously there also about a dozen names written out in Roman letters. The smaller two albums are not captioned at all. The photographs capture a range of image but many are focused on the young man's military service and training, as well as fellow soldiers, of which there are nearly two dozen formal portrait in uniform. The men pose by themselves and with others in both candid and more organized group shots, as well as with soldiers near a plane and at the target range firing heavy machine guns. The other half of the photos capture civilian life with family portraits, children playing, groups of fisherman in front of their catch, men sailing on the water, shopkeepers, and men and women playing sports. A interesting and varied group of image of 1920-era Japan soldier.

Item #403324