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the loss of his fortune, Kühn operated a private studio
in his house. In 1914 he established a photography
school in Innsbruck, which had to be closed one year
later due to the continuing First World War. The design
of a soft-drawing lens named “Imagon,” the publication
of two photo books about the technology and aesthet-
ics of photography, as well as numerous publications
in specialized magazines marked his activity in the
1920s and 1930s. Kühn died on September 14, 1944,
in Birgitz/Tirol.
Astrid Lechner
KUICHI, UCHIDA; See UCHIDA KUICHI
KUSAKABE KIMBEI (1841–1932)
Japanese photographer and studio owner
Kusakabe Kimbei was one of the most successful pho-
tographers in nineteenth-century Japan, operating a
studio in Yokohama from where he produced, for foreign
residents and tourists, beautifully decorated albums of
handcolored albumen prints of both scenery and genre
subjects. As a result, Kusakabe is better known today
in the West than in Japan and usually by his fi rst name,
Kimbei, which he used no doubt because it was easier
for foreigners to pronounce. Born into a family of textile
merchants in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture, Kusakabe
left home at eighteen to become an artist in Yokohama.
Some time in the 1860s he joined Felix Beato, initially
to assist in the handcoloring of photographs, but than as
a studio assistant. He subsequently worked with Baron
Raimund Von Stillfried-Ratenicz. Kusakabe opened his
own Yokohama studio in 1880 and was adept at cultivat-
ing foreign patronage—no doubt his time with Beato and
Stillfried would have helped in this respect. Becoming
a Christian in 1885 would also not have harmed his
business and, by the end of the century, he operated the
largest studio in Japan. Retiring in 1914 he spent his later
years painting. By 1930 his health had worsened and he
moved to Ashiya City where he died in 1932.
Terry Bennet