Per Art

NOBUKUNI ENAMI (1859-1929)

Born in Edo (now Tokyo) during the Bakumatsu era, Enami was first a student of, and then an assistant to the well-known photographer and collotypist, Ogawa Kazumasa.

Enami relocated to Yokohama, and opened a studio on Benten-dōri (Benten Street) in 1892. Just a few doors away from him was the studio of the already well known Tamamura Kōzaburō. He and Enami would work together on at least three related projects over the years.

Enami became quietly unique as the only photographer of that period known to work in all popular formats, including the production of large-format photographs compiled into what are commonly called "Yokohama Albums". Enami went on to become Japan's most prolific photographer of small-format images such as the stereoview and glass lantern-slides. The best of these were delicately hand-tinted. His images in all formats eventually appeared in books and periodicals having press-runs in the millions.

The Japanese stereoview lines of at least three major American publishers were made up entirely of T. Enami images.

Enami survived the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake, and rebuilt his studio which had been destroyed by the quake and subsequent fire. After his death at age 70 in 1929, his first son Tamotsu took over the studio until it was once again demolished in 1945 by the Allied bombing of Yokohama during World War II.