Koreaki Kamei

Koreaki Kamei was a court noble and count born in 1858 (some sources give 1861). Growing up during the Meiji period's rapid introduction of Western culture, he studied art and technology in Germany in his youth. After returning to Japan he deepened his interest in photography, practicing the medium himself while building a collection of Western photographs, artworks, and books.^*1

His defining contribution to photographic history came during the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95, when he organized a photographic team and accompanied it to the front. The approximately three hundred photographs produced were compiled as the Meiji 27-28 War Photo Album (Meiji nijūshichi-hachi nen seneki shashin-chō) and presented to Emperor Meiji. The album and his campaign diary have been recognized as primary sources of major importance for modern historical research.^*2

Kamei died in 1896, relatively shortly after completing the photographic record project. The Kamei Collection (Kamei Bunko) at the University of Tokyo General Library preserves and provides access to the album alongside Western vintage photographs, books, artworks, and related documents. Kashiwa Shobō has published both the photo album guide and his campaign diary, providing researchers with access to the primary sources.^*11

Pioneer of organized war photography

The significance of Kamei's contribution to photographic history lies beyond individual documentary practice in the organization of a war photography team. The Sino-Japanese War documentation was not a single photographer happening to be present at the front; it was a planned, organized record-making enterprise. In structural terms, it is comparable to the organized war photography that Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner conducted during the American Civil War.^*2

The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum digital collection includes Kamei's war photographs, recording battlefield scenes, troop movements, and occupied territories. These carry a character closer to systematic survey documentation — evidence and record of the campaign as a whole — than to photojournalistic images focused on dramatic combat moments. The purpose of the record was the visual documentation of a national war, not the emotional exposure of its costs.^*3

According to an NHK program recorded in the Broadcast Library archive, approximately three hundred campaign photographs and a diary found at Kamei's residence were introduced as materials that "look into the essence of war." These photographs were rediscovered as a record distinct in character from conventional war reporting images of the period, and have been valued as visual evidence of the reality of the Sino-Japanese War.^*4

The photo album format and presentation to the Emperor

The photo album Kamei compiled is bound up with the political and ceremonial act of presenting a visual record of a national war to the Emperor. The photo album as a form functioned not as a mere collection of photographs but, through editing, binding, and presentation, as a medium for formally commemorating and documenting the national war. This indicates that photography had been institutionalized as part of the Meiji state's documentary system.^*1

Kashiwa Shobō has published both the Sino-Japanese War Campaign Photo Album and Kamei's campaign diary as primary source materials referenced in both the history of the Sino-Japanese War and modern Japanese photographic history. The ability to cross-reference diary entries with photographs to confirm the timing and location of individual shots is considered academically significant.^*11

The Kamei Collection — a cultural resource beyond the album

The Kamei Collection (Western Vintage Photography Collection) administered by the University of Tokyo Museum includes Western vintage photographs assembled by Kamei and has been consulted by scholars of art and photographic history. The collection appears to have begun forming during his German studies, reflecting his sustained interest in Western photographic technology and art. Parts of the collection are accessible to researchers through the University of Tokyo's digital archive portal.^*8

The Kamei Bunko catalog held in the University of Tokyo repository documents the full structure of the collection, including the photo album, books, artworks, and documents. The KAKEN-funded research project on the Kamei Collection supported comprehensive academic study of this archive, situating it at the intersection of modern Japanese photographic and art history.^*9

German study and the reception of Western photographic technology

Kamei's study in Germany is an important background for understanding how his interest in photography formed. Photographic technology in Meiji Japan was imported from multiple Western countries including France, Britain, and the United States; German optical technology and photographic science were also significant sources. His engagement with art and technology in Germany, followed by involvement with photography after returning home, is one instance of the Meiji intelligentsia and aristocracy incorporating Western technology into Japanese culture.^*7

War photography, record, and critical reading

Kamei's war photographs are official-character records shot from the perspective of the victorious side in the Sino-Japanese War. The question of whose viewpoint these photographs of occupied territories and battlefields represent, and for what purpose they were made, is unavoidable in contemporary photographic history research. Their character as official records made from the position of the victor raises questions parallel to those raised in the critical examination of American Civil War photography.^*2

As discussed in a Ritsumeikan University paper, the historical position of Sino-Japanese War photographic and film records occupies an important place in the history of war and visual media in modern Japan — Japan's first major international war, recorded and visualized as a modern state. In this context, Kamei's enterprise is readable as among the earliest documented cases in Japan of a state systematically using photography for war documentation, commemoration, and legitimation.^*7

Koreaki Kamei is positioned in Japanese photographic history as a pioneer who led the institutionalization of organized war photography. That standing rests not on individual photographic achievement but on the significance of his photographic team organization, album compilation, and imperial presentation as institutional precedents.^*1

The Kamei Collection at the University of Tokyo Library — containing the photo album, Western photography collection, and related documents — is consulted by researchers as an important archive, and KAKEN research projects have supported comprehensive academic study of this collection. The Kamei Bunko catalog in the university repository provides detailed access to the collection's contents.^*2

The NHK program recorded in the Broadcast Library introduced the campaign photographs and diary as recently rediscovered materials, contributing to broader public awareness of Kamei beyond photographic history research. Such public media coverage has extended interest in his work beyond specialist scholarship.^*4

As shown in Ritsumeikan University research, the historical position of Sino-Japanese War photographic and film records remains an active topic in modern Japanese historical studies of war and visual media. The shashinshi.biz database of late Edo and Meiji photographers also records Sino-Japanese War photography activity, providing context for the range of visual documentation of that conflict.^*12

Art Platform Japan lists Koreaki Kamei as a figure spanning Japanese art, photography, and cultural history. The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum's digital archive functions as an important public access point for his war photographs, serving as empirical evidence for photography's position as a medium of official documentation within the Meiji state.^*5