was an important 19th and early 20th century Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese photographer. He was a pioneer of wet-plate photography

Collodion process

The collodion process is an early photographic process. It was introduced in the 1850s and by the end of that decade it had almost entirely replaced the first practical photographic process, the daguerreotype. During the 1880s the collodion process, in turn, was largely replaced by gelatin dry...

 in Japan and is noted for his excellent large-format, albumen

Albumen print

The albumen print, also called albumen silver print, was invented in 1850 by Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard, and was the first commercially exploitable method of producing a photographic print on a paper base from a negative...

 landscapes. Tomishige is especially renowned in Kyūshū

Kyushu

is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....

.

In 1854 Tomishige left his hometown of Yanagawa

Yanagawa, Fukuoka

is a city located in Fukuoka, Japan.On March 21, 2005 the towns of Yamato and Mitsuhashi, both from Yamato District, were merged into Yanagawa.As of April 30, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 71,848, with a household number of 24,507, and the population density of 934.55 persons per km²...

 for Nagasaki, where he became a merchant. When this career proved unsuccessful, in 1862 he became an apprentice to Kameya Tokujirō

Kameya Tokujiro

was a pioneering, though now little-known, nineteenth-century Japanese photographer. Kameya's original surname was Abe ; he was adopted by a family named Kameya. He learned photography at Deshima, the Dutch enclave in the harbour of Nagasaki where physicians Jan Karel van den Broek and...

, an early local photographer. Later the same year Kameya left Nagasaki to open a photographic studio

Photographic studio

A photographic studio is both a workspace and a corporate body. As a workspace it is much like an artist’s studio, but providing space to take, develop, print and duplicate photographs. Photographic training and the display of finished photographs may also be accommodated in a photographic studio...

 in Kyoto

Kyoto

is a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...

, but Tomishige continued his photographic studies under Ueno Hikoma

Ueno Hikoma

was a pioneer Japanese photographer, born in Nagasaki. He is noted for his fine portraits, often of important Japanese and foreign figures, and for his excellent landscapes, particularly of Nagasaki and its surroundings...

. The two became lifelong friends. Returning to Yanagawa, Tomishige opened his own photographic studio in 1866, but the business was not a success and in 1868-1869 he once again worked as Kameya's apprentice in Nagasaki.

In 1870 Tomishige decided to move to Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, but he ended up in Kumamoto

Kumamoto, Kumamoto

is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. Greater Kumamoto has a population of 1,460,000, as of the 2000 census...

 where he opened a studio – probably the first in the city. The local army garrison commissioned him to photograph Kumamoto Castle

Kumamoto Castle

is a hilltop Japanese castle located in Kumamoto in Kumamoto Prefecture. It was a large and extremely well fortified castle. The is a concrete reconstruction built in 1960, but several ancillary wooden buildings remain of the original castle. Kumamoto Castle is considered one of the three premier...

. The photographs from this commission are particularly significant since the castle was destroyed in the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion

Satsuma Rebellion

The was a revolt of Satsuma ex-samurai against the Meiji government from January 29 to September 24, 1877, 9 years into the Meiji Era. It was the last, and the most serious, of a series of armed uprisings against the new government.-Background:...

, and Tomishige's images are among the few of the structure before this destruction. Tomishige's studio was destroyed on the same occasion, but rebuilt the following year. Remarkably, the studio continues to this day, operated by his descendants. To mark 130 years of its existence, in 1993 the studio collaborated in an exhibition at the Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art (Kumamoto Kenritsu Bijutsukan) and the accompanying catalogue, Tomishige shashinjo no 130-nen.

Tomishige was the most popular professional photographer in Kumamoto, and many soldiers and generals came to him. Viscount Tani Tateki

Tani Tateki

-External links:...

 and his staff of the army in the Satsuma Rebellion

Satsuma Rebellion

The was a revolt of Satsuma ex-samurai against the Meiji government from January 29 to September 24, 1877, 9 years into the Meiji Era. It was the last, and the most serious, of a series of armed uprisings against the new government.-Background:...

 war were photographed soon after the war. Count Nogi Maresuke asked Tomishige to follow him photographing the after-effects of the rebellion, for three days, and Nogi paid for the photographs. He took photographs of the novelist Natsume Sōseki

Natsume Soseki

, born ', is widely considered to be the foremost Japanese novelist of the Meiji period . He is best known for his novels Kokoro, Botchan, I Am a Cat and his unfinished work Light and Darkness. He was also a scholar of British literature and composer of haiku, Chinese-style poetry, and fairy tales...

, Hannah Riddell

Hannah Riddell

Hannah Riddell was an English woman who devoted her life to the salvation of Hansen's disease patients in Japan.-Early life and her determination:...

 (who first built Kumamoto's first leprosy hospital), Nogi Maresuke (one of the most famous generals in Japan), Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa

Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa

of Japan, was the 2nd head of a collateral branch of the Japanese imperial family.- Early life :Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa was the ninth son of Prince Fushimi Kuniye . He entered the Buddhist priesthood under the title Rinnoji-no-miya...

 (who learned photography under Tomishige), Viscount Kawakami Sōroku

Kawakami Soroku

- Notes :...

, Kodama Gentarō and Lafcadio Hearn

Lafcadio Hearn

Patrick Lafcadio Hearn , known also by the Japanese name , was an international writer, known best for his books about Japan, especially his collections of Japanese legends and ghost stories, such as Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things...

 (a writer).

Tomishige sent photographs of Japan to various international contests including an international health exihibition held in Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

in 1911; he used the name of his son in this case. It was shown in the Japanese Pavilion.

The Tomishige Photographic Studio has been active and as of 2010, it is succeeded by the grand-grand son of Rihei, the 4th director of the studio.