Ogawa, Kazumasa. The Russo-Japanese War: Taken by the Photographic Department of the Imperial Headquarters (22 parts in wrappers). Tokyo, Japan: K. Ogawa, 1904-1905. First Edition. [6197]
All issues with copyright date of 1904; the last photo of the series dated November 12, 1905; agents Kelly & Walsh. 22 of 23 parts in the series, lacks no. 9.
Oblong issues, each in the original printed wrappers, 25.7 x 38 cm (10 1/8 x 14 7/8 inches), printed in Japanese & English, each issue with half tone plates, some folding, most plates printed from b/w photographs on both sides. Brief descriptive text for each photo, each issue with table of contents. Reads back to front in Japanese style. Light soil/edge fading to some wrappers, contents good to very good, some foxing.
Photo 22 (No. 1) with censor's sheet covering "Some of those killed in the battle at Tashihchiao." Some plates with tissue overlays having Japanese words describing the photo.
Copyright misspelled as "Copyrihgt" at bottom of each photo in Nos. 1 & 2.
This group contains the Imperial Proclamation of War, title pages, prefaces, contents pages, some issues have unnumbered frontispieces of officers; the set has numbered plates
1-112 (Nos. 1-4);
1-60, First Army (Nos. 5-6);
1-53, 80-224, Third Army (Nos. 7-8, 10-14);
1-90, Fourth Army (No. 15-17);
61-90, First Army (No. 18);
113-172, Second Army (No. 19-20);
1-56, Karafuto Army (Nos. 21-22);
1-15, 173-180 (No. 23). The last leaves of no. 23 are wavy from moisture and have some marginal tears.
All of the photos of plates presented above are from No. 1.
We notice some emphasis on the treatment of the wounded and of prisoners of war in the series, intended to influence public opinion in both Japan and in the English-speaking world.
Kazumasa Ogawa (1860-1929), b. Saitama, Japan, to the Matsudaira samurai clan. At the age of 15 he began the study of English and photography, moving to Boston in 1882 to further his studies and practice. He learned collotype printing in the Albert Type Company. He opened the first photographic studio in Tokyo in 1884 and in 1889 set up Japan's first collotype business. He printed several magazines and was the editor of the only photographic journal in Japan, and was a founding member of the Japan Photographic Society. (see entry at Wikipedia).