Background
Shimo-Oka Renjo was born on March 23, 1823 in Shimada, Izu Province (Shizuoka Prefecture), Japan. He was the son of the Tokugawa shogun's official seaport hauler.
(Albumen print on display at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum...)
Albumen print on display at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art from April 8)
蓮杖 下岡
Shimo-Oka Renjo was born on March 23, 1823 in Shimada, Izu Province (Shizuoka Prefecture), Japan. He was the son of the Tokugawa shogun's official seaport hauler.
He himself went to Tokyo at the age of 13 to receive an artistic education there. Kano Tosen Nakanobu (1811-1871) taught him traditional painting. Later he started a Tokyo-Yokohama stage coach service.
Renjō acquired his first camera in 1861 from the American photographer John Wilson by trading it for a painting of a panoramic scene. Shortly thereafter he abandoned his studies in painting and pursued photography as a career.
He opened a photographic studio in Yokohama in 1862, one of the first in the country. He continued to open studios in the city, primarily focusing on portraiture, and changed his name to Shimooka Renjō in 1865. He taught many photographic students and apprentices before leaving his businesses to his pupils in 1877. He was elected to the Japan Photographic Society in 1893.
