Suzuki Shin'ichi (鈴木 真一 Suzuki Shin'ichi?, 1835–1918[1]) was the older and more renowned Japanese photographer of that name. Suzuki was born as the third son of a family named Takahashi[2]) in Iwashina (岩科村?) (now Matsuzaki, Shizuoka) in July 1835. Both his parents died when he was young, and he moved into the Suzuki family (by the custom known as muko-iri [婿入り]) in Shimoda when he married their daughter, working in the family aramono[3] business. The same year, a major tsunami (resulting from one of the Great Ansei Nankai Quakes) destroyed the building and ended the business. Working in sericulture, Suzuki often traveled to Yokohama. He started at the Yokohama photographic studio of Shimooka Renjō in 1867.[4] In November 1873 he set up his own studio, and in 1884 moved to a newly-built, western-style two-storey studio. Suzuki's photographs were highly acclaimed and he won an award for them in 1877. In 1889 he and Maruki Riyō photographed Emperor Meiji and his wife. Suzuki died in December 1918. In 1873, Okamoto,[5] a successor of his at Shimooka's studio, married Suzuki's daughter, and Okamoto joined the Suzuki family (muko-iri again). Okamoto became Suzuki Shin'ichi II, and the older photographer thereupon changed his own name.[6]
Notes
- ^ Bennett gives 1919 as Suzuki's year of death, 291.
- ^ Written 高橋. His full name was written 高橋真一; this may well have been pronounced Takahashi Shin'ichi but the given name may have had a completely different pronunciation; no reference yet seen specifies the reading.
- ^ Things made of wood, wicker, etc.
- ^ In 1866, according to Bennett, 291.
- ^ Perhaps Okamoto Keizō; the characters are 岡本圭三 but no dictionary yet seen specifies the reading.
- ^ To 鈴木真, but no reference yet seen specifies the reading of 真. Probably it was simply Shin; conceivably it was Makoto or something else.
References
- Bennett, Terry. Old Japanese Photographs: Collector's Data Guide London: Quaritch, 2006. ISBN 0955085241 (hard)
- (Japanese) Nihon no shashinka (日本の写真家) / Biographic Dictionary of Japanese Photography. Tokyo: Nichigai Associates, 2005. ISBN 4-8169-1948-1. Pp. 223–4. Despite the English-language alternative title, all in Japanese.
- (Japanese) Kaneko Ryūichi. "Suzuki Shin'ichi". Nihon shashinka jiten (日本写真家事典) / 328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers. Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000. ISBN 4-473-01750-8. P.186. Despite the English-language alternative title, all in Japanese.
External links
- (Japanese) Suzuki within the Matsuzaki town site
