Sanshichiro Yamamoto, 1906: Peking (Beijing Ming Sheng), a souvenir booklet of photographs

Dim.: 26,5 x 19 cm

llustrated with 90 photographic plates and protected with tissue guards, captions in English and Chinese. A scarce album of Peking pictorial works edited and published by Sanshichiro Yamamoto. It contains views of imperial palaces, sights of Peking and its suburbs in the end of Qing period. Depicted are historic places like the Summer Palace, the Lama Temple, the Ming Tombs, along with photos of people at that time. Also including the Ch'ien men great street, the Ta Chin Men gate, Tung tan peilo, the inside of Confucius' temple, the Drum tower, the Marble bridge in Summer Palace, Chu yuug kwan, the Sedan chair, Ginrikisha, the typical monowheel carts, a Mongolian chief and his wife, and others.

Sanshichiro Yamamoto (1855-1943) was a Japanese photographer, born in Okayama Prefecture. He had a photography studio in Shibahikage-cho (near present day Shimbashi Station) in Tokyo, Japan, from 1882 to about 1897. When the news of the Boxer uprising swept the world, he quickly went to Peking (Beijing) to photograph the historic activities of foreign troops including the Japanese in the capital. His photos captured not just tourist scenes, but also scenes of daily life in China. After photographing the aftermath in Peking (Beijing), he finally settled down in Tientsin (Tianjin) and opened his third photographic studio (Yamamoto Shozo Kan or Yamamoto Syozo House), from where he sold photographs taken in and around Beijing and North China, souvenir photobooks and coloured postcards.