Kameya Tokujirō

); he was adopted by a family named Kameya. [Abe, adoption: "Nihon no shashinka", s.v. "Kameya Tokujirō".] He learned photography at Deshima, the Dutch enclave in the harbour of Nagasaki where physicians Jan Karel van den Broek and J. L. C. Pompe van Meerdervoort taught photography in addition to medicine and chemistry. In turn, Kameya taught photography to Tomishige Rihei, who became his apprentice in 1862. The same year, Kameya moved to Kyoto to open a photographic studio – the first commercial studio in the city. In 1868, he returned to Nagasaki, where he operated a studio until his death. He died in 1884 in Vladivostok, having opened a branch studio there.

Kameya had a daughter, Kameya Toyo (nihongo2|龜谷とよ, [In modern orthography nihongo2|亀谷とよ.] 1852–1885), who assisted him in his Nagasaki studio and was one of Japan's first woman photographers. In 1871, she married Yoshii Teijirō (nihongo2|吉井禎次郎), [Marriage: "Nihon no shashinka", s.v. "Kameya Toyo".] whom the family adopted and who took the name Kameya Teijirō; he also worked at the Nagasaki studio, later opening and operating a branch studio in Korea until his death in 1885.

Kameya Tokujirō may have opened his Nagasaki studio before his 1862 move to Kyoto, and if so it may predate that of Ueno Hikoma as the earliest in the city.

Notes

References

* Bennett, Terry. "Photography in Japan: 1853–1912." Rutland, Vt: Charles E. Tuttle, 2006, p. 128. ISBN 0804836337 (hard)
*"Nihon no shashinka" (nihongo2|日本の写真家) / "Biographic Dictionary of Japanese Photography." Tokyo: Nichigai Associates, 2005. ISBN 4-8169-1948-1. ja icon Despite the English-language alternative title, all in Japanese. S.vv. "Kameya Tokujirō", "Kameya Toyo"; pp. 132–33.