Atelier Bonryu(E)
pinhole photography
Laboratory: Pinhole Photography
History of Pinhole Photography
- Artists of Edo Period -
Hokusai Katsushika, Bakin Takizawa, and Artists of Edo Period: When was the pinhole phenomenon brought to the knowledge of Japanese people?
It is not clear who was the first who payed attention to the pinhole phenomenon in Japan. I don’t know any document before the Edo Period (1603 - 1868) which describes things relating the pinhole phenomenon. When we talk about the science and technology of the Edo Period Gen’nai Hiraga (1728 - 1780) is always mentioned, but it is not clear whether Gen’nai Hiraga got directly engaged in matters relating the pinhole phenomenon. According to Eizo no Kigen (“Roots of Vision” by Kuniaki Nakagawa; in Japanese) the first recorded data of the camera obscura in Japan is “Anshitsu-kyo (donker camer glassen)” kept in the journal book of imported articles of Dutch Trading House in Dejima, which was imported from Holland in 1645 and is believed to be the same article with that written in the Dutch Trading House Diary of Hirado in 1646.
After the “camera obscura” was imported it became presumably widespread in Japan. Though at the time it was called by various Japanese names as “Anshitsu-Kyo”, “Ansitsu-Shashin-Kyo” and so on, finally “Shashin-Kyo” became to stay as the Japanese name of the camera obscura. Gen’nai Hiraga and Kohkan Shiba (1747 - 1818), a famous painter, are believed to be the namers of the “Shashin-Kyo” and the users of it, too. The camera obscura was imported in the mid-17th century as described above and in the 18th century it is considered that the camera obscuras were used widely in Japan. But these camera obscuras were presumed to be those with a lens.
Then is there any historical record in Japan on the pinhole phenomenon itself?
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“Saiana no Fuji (Mt. Fuji projected through a knothole)” in the ilustrated book titled “Fugaku-Hyakkei (100 Scenes of Mt. Fuji)” by Hokusai Katsushika.
As a matter of fact there are just records of the Edo Period which describe the pinhole phenomenon itself. The famous woodblock artist Hokusai Katsushika (1760 - 1849) published an illustrated book titled ”Fugaku Hyakkei (100 Scenes of Mt. Fuji, 1834)“ where a woodblock print ”Saiana no Fuji (Mt. Fuji projected through a knothole)“ is included. This picture is famous in considerable measure and is often cited in relation with the pinhole phenomenon.
Similar picture of the pinhole phenomenon is also found in the book ”Kage to Hinata no Chinmon Zui (Literally translated as Collection of unique pictures in dark and bright places, 1803)“ by a similarly famous popular novelist Bakin Takizawa (1767 - 1848). The caption of the picture of the pinhole phenomenon in this book is essentially the same as the essay ”Goshiki no Sansui (Landscape of many colors)“, chapter 23 of the record of travel, ”Kiryo Manroku (1801)“ by the same author. There are described three examples of the pinhole phenomenon realized by a knothole of a wooden wall of a house.
One of them was a scenery of a garden projected through a knothole of a lumber room of a house of a wealthy merchant, Shobe-e Fukami, at Mikawa and another was an image of the tower of Toji temple projected through a knothole of a lumber room of a farmer, Matazaemon Niwa, in Kyoto. The third one was observed at a Yakushi Hall (a house in a temple) in Shinano but Bakin described that he only heard of it and had not seen it yet. Bakin depicted the fineness and the brightness of the projected scenery at the Fukami’s home as that projected by ”Biidoro Kagami“. In the Edo Period ”Biidoro Kagami“ meant sometimes a glass mirror or a telescope made of glass lenses but in this case it might be a “room-type camera obscura” inside which people enjoyed to see a scenery projected on a wall of the room sitting on a floor of the room.
In these books Bakin cited the Chinese book, ”Chuo Geng Lu (“Talks while Plough is Resting” or “Records after retiring to countryside”, 1341)“ by Tao Zongyi (1316 - 1369) and the previously described ”Youyang Zatu“ by Duan Cheng Shi. It is interesting that Bakin had not generalized the ”knothole“ phenomenon further. In contrast to Aristotle who generalized the phenomenon produced by the overlapping leaves of a plane tree to that by sieves or by joining fingers of both hands, Bakin seems to have thought that specific knotholes might have special power to reveal such a phenomenon.
Anyway at some period Bakin and Hokusai were very close. Therefore, it is supposed that the concept of the pinhole phenomenon came down from Duan Cheng Shi to Bakin Takizawa and then to Hokusai Katsushika.
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Bakin Takizawa, “Kage to Hinata no Chinmon Zui”
A scenery of a garden projected through a knothole of a lumber room of a wealthy merchant Shobe-e Fukami at Mikawa.
