Old photo album bought in Japan, opinions please.

Greetings all,

We're in the process of moving interstate using our own transport, meaning we need to be ruthless in what we take with us and what we dispose of.

The links below show the first few pages of a large cloth-bound photo album we bought at a flea market in Japan somewhere from the late 1990's to early 2000's, from either Tokyo, Osaka, or Kyoto.

If it's a family's album then we'll hang onto it, if it's something put together from copies of others' photos then we won't.

Any opinions appreciated!

How many photos/pages are there in total? The picture of the Meiji-tenno is definitely worth preserving. I can't tell whether the other images display anyone famous.

I'd personally keep it. If you decide otherwise, I'd at least donate it to a museum. The photo of the Meiji Emperor certainly got my attention!

thomas said:

How many photos/pages are there in total? The picture of the Meiji-tenno is definitely worth preserving. I can't tell whether the other images display anyone famous.

Click to expand...

The album has 22 pages, and is quite hefty in weight due to the thickness of the individual pages.

The photo of Meiji-era royalty (the first pic in the album) is also interesting in that the upper chrysanthemum seal is raised and made of what seem to be felt or a similiar material.

After a closer look at the album's contents it does seem that it was someone's family album so we will be taking it with us, and perhaps passing it on to a Japanese consulate (or museum as suggested) at some later stage.

Two more random pages appear at the links below (caveat: they are high resolution and 5-10MB each, and so may be slow to load)

PartTimeLaowai said:

After a closer look at the album's contents, it does seem that it was someone's family album so we will be taking it with us, and perhaps passing it on to a Japanese consulate (or museum as suggested) at some later stage.

Click to expand...

Thank you for sharing these images! I'm glad you won't dispose of it, as it does look like a family album.

If the nearest Japanese consulate or museum can't help you, you could scan or photograph all the pages. We'd be glad to take a closer look and help you trace it back to the previous owners.

If you do a google search on the Emperor Meiji photo, you can see the same one pop up on a wikipedia page
So, its probably a commemorative photo: something that was reprinted many times, and therefore not super-unique, but if its in good condition its certainly a neat thing to have.
The family photos look to be from the Kusakabe family. (日下部) . It's not a very common name, but there are a few thousand people in Japan with this surname. It's possible there could be some traceable descendants. The pictures have dates ranging from Meiji 37 (1904) to Meiji 45 (1912).