When japan opened its ports to the west in the 1850s, photography—called shashin, literally, a copy of truth—soon became widely available. High-end professional salons and open-air studios operated by itinerant practitioners offered portraits at every price range. While the popularity of ambrotypes, a positive photograph on glass, was short-lived in the united states, japanese ambrotypes were in demand from the early 1870s until the end of the nineteenth century. This ambrotype portrait depicts a barefoot geisha with her attendant. Housed in poetry-inscribed kiri-wood box, it provides an intimate and rare glimpse of how modern japanese society represented itself. Object Type: photograph. Date: 1860s. Dimensions: Image: 10 x 7.6 cm (3 15/16 x 3 in.); ; Case: 1.3 x 11.1 x 8.6 cm (1/2 x 4 3/8 x 3 3/8 in.). Medium: ambrotype. Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art. -Geisha with Attendant- MET DP369542
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