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C. 1900 Japanese Photo, Medical Orderlies, Amputated Arms, Studio SGD

Bunkerhill

Sempai
17 Aug 2016
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Hi gang.

A recent addition to my collection with the content a mystery to me. The photo depicting two Japanese medical orderlies or medical doctors, each with his left arm amputated. The gentleman on the left has sustained some type of facial injury.

There is no caption. This type of photograph is called a ' cabinet card ' and is printed onto a thick cardboard like mount. The reverse of this particular cabinet card has been skinned. That is to say, the reverse has been peeled from the front. Any caption or date that may have been on the reverse is missing.

SO - while I have no idea the back story at all, I wondered if I one of you might be able to identify the photo studio name at the bottom of the cabinet card. I had hoped a photo studio location might be of help figuring out the backstory.
Japanese medical no watermark.jpg
 
Mike, that's a very good point. I saw what I thought were medical uniforms and made an assumption.

Now that I know there was a military hospital in the city where the photo was taken your observation makes a lot of sense.

Thank you!
 
The seal on the lower side is;
金澤市犀川
中川除町櫻橋角
金城館寫
photo by Kinjōkan, corner of Sakura-bashi, Nakakawayoke-machi, Saikawa, Kanazawa-shi

The same sale can be seen on the photo in the page linked below, and the site says that the photo was taken in 1907, so Mike-san's interpretation "patients wounded in the Russo-Japanese War" makes much sense.

資料アーカイブ - 金沢大学資料館ヴァーチャル・ミュージアム

The museum has photos of another seal of the same photo studio printed in 1904, 1906 and 1912, so the studio would use different seals in the same period.
 
Excellent information, Toritoribe.

Will add this information to my file and Flickr feed.

My sincere thanks!
 
It's sad the photo doesn't have their names. Now we have no way of finding out if their arms grew back or not.
 
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