BERLIN : MELTZER
Kawasaki Dōmin
1862Albumen print | 9.0 x 5.5 cm (image) | RCIN 2915302
The first Japanese visitors to Britain included an embassy sent to re-negotiate commercial agreements in 1862. They arrived just as the fashion for collecting cartes-de-visite of public figures reached its height. For the first time, photographs of samurai became widely available to the British public, propelling this inaccessible warrior class to prominence.