Travel to Turn of the Century Japan with this Book
Marc Walter/Photovintage France. Courtesy of TASCHEN.
From stunning photos of old artisan shops to spectacular natural vistas, this new book will bring you back to a lost Japan.
So much of our travel, from museums to historic neighborhoods to reenactments, are an attempt to travel back into the past. The same goes for coffee table books, whether they be photos of Paris by Marville or the Golden Age of Hollywood. That’s why our latest selection for Just Booked, our series on gorgeous travel related coffee table books, is the latest in Taschen’s series on various destinations at the turn of the century—Japan 1900.
The extra large book is filled with more than 700 photos from the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th and have been lightly colorized. They capture a Japan as it slowly opens up to the world and becomes a major stop on the steamship routes (so popular that the word globetrotter was created to describe its western visitors).
Taschen
There are fabulous photos of Osaka, bustling as ever, and the mixed architecture of Yokohama. The artisan shops down narrow alleys is much of what visiting Japan at that time was about, so there are of course shots of that. But the natural beauty is particularly captivating, from nearly empty bays to glorious Mt. Fuji, and of course, plenty of cherry blossoms.
Yokohama, cherry blossoms at Nogeyama, Kusakabe Kimbei, c. 1890.