Street Minstrel, Gose
1870s
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative with applied color
Dimensions
25.2 x 20.2 cm (9 15/16 x 7 15/16 in.)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gilman Collection, Museum Purchase, 2005
Accession Number
2005.100.505.1 (9b)
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the bustling streets of Gose, a city in Japan's Nara Prefecture, Suzuki Shin'ichi captured the essence of everyday life during the 1870s with *Street Minstrel, Gose*. This poignant portrait features a male performer, likely a wandering musician clutching his instrument, embodying the vibrant tradition of street minstrels who entertained passersby with songs and tales in pre-modern Japan. Created amid the Meiji era's whirlwind of Western influences following the 1868 Restoration, Suzuki's work preserves a snapshot of fading folk customs as Japan hurtled toward modernization. Printed as an a...
About the Artist
Suzuki Shin'ichi · 1835–1919
Suzuki Shin'ichi (1835–1919) was a Japanese photographer who worked during a period of extraordinary transformation in both Japanese society and the history of the photographic medium. Active during the Meiji era, when Japan was engaged in a sweeping process of modernization and opening to the world, Suzuki belonged to the generation of early Japanese photographers who helped define what photograp...