U

1415

UCHIDA KUICHI (1844–1875)
Japanese photographer

Uchida Kuichi was born in 1844 in Nagasaki, Japan.
He may have fi rst encountered photography through
contact with the Dutch physician Johannes Pompe van
Meerdervoort at the naval training school there. Uchida
studied photography with Ueno Hikoma in the early
1860s. In 1865 Uchida and Morita Raizø opened the fi rst
photography studio in Osaka. Uchida moved his busi-
ness to Yokohama in 1866, and then to Tokyo in 1869.
Over the next several years he established a reputation
as the fi nest portrait photographer in Tokyo. His fame
resulted in a commission from the Department of the
Imperial Household in 1872 to make the fi rst offi cial
photograph of the Emperor Meiji. Uchida photographed
the young emperor wearing traditional court dress. State
authorities believed the image fed negative stereotypes
of Japan as a regressive country, and commissioned
another photograph in 1873 to show a more updated
look. The later image, depicting the emperor in a West-
ern military-style uniform and with a new short haircut,
was widely distributed as the offi cial imperial portrait.
Uchida also traveled with the emperor throughout Japan
in 1872, where he photographed the various locations
visited as well as the public’s response to the imperial
entourage. Uchida’s successful career was cut short
when he died of tuberculosis in Tokyo in 1875.
Karen Fraser

UENO HIKOMA (1838–1904)
Ueno Hikoma was born in Nagasaki, Japan in 1838.
His merchant father, Ueno Toshinojø, imported Japan’s
fi rst camera in 1848. Ueno’s interest in photography did
not stem from this event, however, but from studying
chemistry at the naval training school in Nagasaki under

Johannes Pompe van Meerdervoort, a Dutch naval doc-

tor. Ueno was an intrepid student, constructing his own

cameras from old telescope lenses and experimenting

with various ways to make photographic chemicals,

which were not yet readily available. In 1859 Ueno

learned collodion wet-plate photography from the

Swiss photographer Pierre Rossier, sent to Nagasaki by

the London fi rm Negretti and Zambra. In 1862 Ueno

published Seimikyoku hikkei (Chemist’s Handbook),

co-authored with Horie Kuwajirø. It included an ap-

pendix describing collodion wet-plate photography,

Japan’s fi rst manual on the process. Later that year,

Ueno opened a studio in Nagasaki, one of Japan’s fi rst,

and he also began importing cameras and photographic

supplies. Ueno became well known for both landscape

and portrait photography. He photographed a number of

important nineteenth-century fi gures, including former

U.S. president Ulysses S. Grant. Other highlights of

his career included assisting a team of Americans who

came to Nagasaki in 1874 to photograph the transit of

Venus across the sun, and photographing the battlefi eld

during the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877. Ueno was one of

Japan’s most successful early photographers, later open-

ing branch studios in Vladistock, Shanghai, and Hong

Kong in 1890 and 1891. He died in Nagasaki in 1904.

Karen Fraser

UKAI GYOKUSEN (1807–1887)

Japanese photographer

Ukai Gyokusen was the fi rst Japan-born professional

photographer, operating a studio in Edo (Tokyo) from

1860 or 1861 until 1867. Until recently his reputation

has been overshadowed by Shimooka Renjo and Ueno

Hikoma’s who nevertheless did not open their studios

until 1862. It is strange that Ukai’s signifi cance was