Sebastian Dobson

The Golden Age of Travel neatly overlaps with the reign of the Emperor Meiji, which began in 1868 with the overthrow of a feudal order that had kept Japan secluded from the outside world for more than 200 years. In the ensuing four-and-a-half decades, Japan became a less remote and more attractive destination for the international traveller and a popular...

Japan on a Glass Plate draws from an extensive private collection assembled over many years, presenting a unique selection of nineteenth-century photographs of Japan, many of which are published here for the first time. Between the twilight years of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867) and the end of the Meiji Era (1868-1912) that followed it, photography offered a unique insight into...