1. Ueno Hikoma was a pioneer Japanese photographer, born in Nagasaki.
15 Facts About Ueno Hikoma
1. 2.
Ueno Hikoma is noted for his fine portraits, often of important Japanese and foreign figures, and for his excellent landscapes, particularly of Nagasaki and its surroundings.
3.
Ueno Hikoma first studied Chinese classics; then in 1852, not long after his father's death, he entered the Nagasaki Medical College with a view to studying chemistry in order to help him run the family business, dealing in nitre and chintz dyeing.
4.
Ueno Hikoma eventually studied chemistry under the Dutch naval medical officer Johannes L C Pompe van Meerdervoort after the latter's arrival in 1857.
5.
Ueno Hikoma was only in Nagasaki for a short time, but while there he taught wet-collodion process photography to Ueno, Horie Kuwajiro, Maeda Genzo and others.
6.
Ueno Hikoma decided to make a career as a photographer.
7.
Still in the early days of this imported technology, Ueno Hikoma overcame the reticence of many Japanese to be photographed and took portraits of such figures as Sakamoto Ryoma, Ito Shunsuke, Takasugi Shinsaku, and Katsu Kaishu.
8.
Ueno Hikoma had an important and close working relationship with Felice Beato.
9.
Ueno Hikoma probably refined his technique during his contact with the experienced Beato.
10.
Ueno Hikoma maintained a close relationship with Uchida, and following the latter's trip to Nagasaki in 1872 while photographing for the Emperor Meiji their albums include several identical images that they presumably exchanged.
11.
Ueno Hikoma photographed the transit of Venus across the sun in 1874 for an American astronomical observation mission.
12.
Ueno Hikoma was accompanied on this job by Setsu Shinichi and Noguchi Joichi.
13.
At first Ueno Hikoma practiced wet-plate photography, but by about 1877 he began using imported Belgian dry plates.
14.
In spite of the contemporary popularity of hand-coloured photographs, Ueno Hikoma's photographs are usually uncoloured.
15.
Some of Ueno Hikoma's negatives were probably purchased at some point by the photographer Kusakabe Kimbei, as these images appear in the latter's albums.