Photographic Materials by Hayasaki Kokichi in the Tokyo National Museum Collection
A Study through Collation with the Hayasaki Kokichi Journal in the Tenshin Memorial Museum of Art, Ibaraki
2013 Volume 20 Pages 18-36
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2013 Volume 20 Pages 18-36
Hayasaki Kokichi, after attaining photography techniques, traveled to China in 1893 to accompany Okakura Tenshin's Chinese art research expedition for studying the origins of Japanese art. This research became the cause for Hayasaki to devote himself to Chinese art studies. In 1903, he gained the opportunity to visit Shaanxi province, China as an invited instructor at Sanyuan University. While he was there, the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum (present-day Tokyo National Museum) commissioned him to research cultural objects of the Longmen Grottoes and Henan province, as well as the Shaanxi province region. As a result of this project, Hayasaki brought materials such as rubbings and 155 photographs to be stored at the museum. Photographs taken by Hayasaki are an important resource for knowing the situation in China at the very end of the Qing dynasty, but many aspects regarding the process and itinerary of the research were unknown until now. This paper attempts to follow Hayasaki's journey and collate the dates, times, and locations of the photographs through studying his journal in the collection of the Tenshin Memorial Museum of Art, Ibaraki.
