Shima Ryū

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Shima Ryū (島隆, Shima Ryū^?, 1823–1900^[1]) was a Japanese artist and pioneering photographer. Originally from Kiryū, in what is now Gunma Prefecture, she studied at an art school in Edo (now Tokyo) where she met Shima Kakoku (1827–1870), a fellow student. The two married in 1855 and soon began moving about the Kantō region, possibly exhibiting their works along the way. At some point the couple learned photography, and in the spring of 1864 Ryū photographed her husband, thereby creating the earliest known photograph by a Japanese woman.^[2] A wet-plate print of this portrait remains in the Shima family archives. The Shimas operated a photographic studio in Edo^[3] in about 1865 to 1867, until Kakoku accepted a teaching position at Kaiseijo. Following her husband's death in 1870, Ryū returned to Kiryū where she opened her own studio. She died in 1900.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Bennett, 129; Nihon no shashinka. "Ryū" according to Nihon no shashinka. (Bennett's spelling of "Ryu" should be discounted: in what is otherwise a scrupulously written book, Bennett or his publisher consistently omits macrons.) Her maiden name is unknown.
2. ^ As asserted by both Bennett and Nihon no shashinka.
3. ^ Nihon no shashinka specifies Shitaya.

[edit] References

• Bennett, Terry. Photography in Japan: 1853–1912 Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle, 2006. ISBN 0804836337 (hard)
• Nihon no shashinka (日本の写真家) / Biographic Dictionary of Japanese Photography. Tokyo: Nichigai Associates, 2005. ISBN 4-8169-1948-1. P.209.(Japanese) Despite the English-language alternative title, all in Japanese.