A Life Behind the Lens

Kajima Seibei was born in 1866 in Osaka, Japan, into a family of significant means. As the son of Seiemon Kajima, he grew up within the orbit of the Kajimaya, a prominent sake wholesaler. His early life was shaped by the wealth and stability of this merchant house, yet his true path was discovered quite by chance. While exploring a warehouse, he came upon a camera that had belonged to one of his predecessors. This single object changed everything for him.

He began his formal training in 1885 under the guidance of Shojiro Imatsu, a photographer from Asakusa who visited the Kajima household regularly. What started as a learned skill soon became a lifelong pursuit. After marrying Nobu, the heiress to the Kajimaya flagship store in Tokyo, he took the name Seibei Kajima VIII. This period of his life was marked by an immense dedication to the technical and financial expansion of photography in Japan.

The Millionaire Photographer

In the Meiji period, Seibei earned the nickname the "Millionaire Photographer" due to his willingness to invest heavily in new and unproven technologies. He did not merely take pictures; he built the infrastructure for the medium to grow. His hands were involved in many of the era's most important photographic institutions:

• He helped finance the Tsukiji Kanpan Seizojo, also known as the Tsukiji Dry Plate Manufacturing Company.
• He provided financial support for the Nihon Shashinkai, or Japan Photographic Society.
• He served as the vice-president of the Dai Nihon Shashin Hinpyokai in 1893.

His studio, the Genrokukan in Ginza, was a place of great spectacle. It featured advanced equipment like arc lights and even a revolving stage to assist with his compositions. He pushed the boundaries of what could be captured on film, using custom-made large-format cameras to produce oversized photographs and experimenting with X-rays. In 1897, he achieved a significant technical feat by capturing the first outdoor night photography in Japan during the funeral corteage of Empress Dowager Eisho, utilizing magnesium flash.

A Legacy of Light and Shadow

The later years of Seibei's life were far removed from the commercial success of his early career. His heavy spending eventually led to a breakdown in relations with the Kajima family in 1896. He spent his final years living with Ponta, a geisha he had asked to pose for his posters in 1890. Though he faced personal hardships, including the loss of a finger in an explosion and the eventual closure of his studio, his technical contributions remained part of Japan's photographic history.

His work captured the essence of a changing nation, from the landscapes of Mt. Fuji to the dramatic figures of Kabuki actors like Ichikawa Danjuro IX. He even applied photography to the decorative arts, printing images on silk screens. When he passed away in 1924, he left behind a body of work that documented both the technological progress and the cultural spirit of the Meiji era.