Vintage Japan

These colorized photos of 19th century Japan are from the Harvard University archives.

Blind masseur giving massage to young woman sitting on futon, ca. 1890

  

 Boat on Sumida River, near Tokyo

  

 Buddhist priests and nuns playing musical instruments on the street, ca. 1890

  

 Children learning calligraphy from master calligrapher, hanging scroll 

and folding screen with decorative painting in background, ca. 1890

  

 Drawing water from the well, ca. 1890

  

 Ferry boat, somewhere in Japan, ca. 1890

  

 Four Japanese women dressed in kimonos walking on porch at Okano Garden, Tokyo. ca. 1887

  

 Four women having tea, brazier in front of them and 

tokonoma with hanging scroll in background, ca. 1890

  

Japanese mothers with children and cherry trees, ca. 1890

  

 Japanese tea ceremony, ca. 1880s

  

 Japanese travelers in basket palanquins, possibly on the Tokaido near Hakone, ca. 1890

  

Japanese woman with her children sitting in front of kimono or 

cloth merchant's shop, with clerk holding an abacus sitting in back, ca. 1890