An Italian adventurer in late 19th century Japan: the exhibition on Adolfo Farsari in Rome

The exploits of Adolfo Farsari (Vicenza, Italy, 1841 - 1898), an adventurer and photographer in late 19th-century Japan, come alive at the Japanese Cultural Institute in Rome in the 64 images of the exhibition The Italian Photographer Who Portrayed Japan in the Late 1800s, expressions of hand-colored black-and-white photography after printing, known as Yokohama Shashin. The exhibition runs from October 15, 2020 to January 8, 2021.

It was long believed in Japan that Adolfo Farsari was an American because he had already obtained U.S. citizenship. In fact, the photographer from Vicenza landed in Yokohama on September 8, 1876, on the ship Belgic, which departed from San Francisco. After working at the Yokohama Cigar Company and then at Sargent, Farsari & Co., in 1884 he established his own firm A. Farsari & Co., and in 1885 he acquired the Japan Photographic Association studio from Franz Stillfried, with the assortment and negatives. Thus he decided to start his own business as a photographer. As the Scottish photographer William K. Burton, who had met him personally, wrote in an article with enthusiastic tones about his technique for coloring photographs, Farsari had enjoyed some professional success.

The rediscovery of photographer Adolfo Farsari was due mainly to the efforts of Elena Dal Pra. The Farsari family home in Vicenza, a large house with a garden and vegetable garden, was inherited by Emma Garbinati Farsari, Adolfo’s younger sister. Then Emma, having no offspring, bequeathed the house to Elena’s paternal grandmother. A large bundle of Adolfo’s letters addressed from the United States and Japan to his parents and Emma was discovered in the same house. Elena’s two articles in the 1990s, derived from her dissertation presented at the University of Padua in the 1990-91 academic year, and two other articles by Lia Beretta shed light on Adolfo’s adventurous life and activities in Yokohama. Nonetheless, there remained a vast space to conduct further Farsarian research.

The exhibition presents to the public part of the result of research on the photographer, conducted with a team in the years 2005-07 in Italy, particularly in Vicenza, and in Japan. In fact, three albums of photographs are brought into focus, all recently returned to the attention of research and with verified provenances that can be referred to documents and materials preserved in Italian institutions, as well as particular references to articles that appeared in newspapers such as the Japan Mail and the Japan Weekly Mail, published in Japan in the 1880s.

On January 17, 1888, after a 21-year hiatus in correspondence, Adolfo resumed contact with his family in Vicenza, writing a letter to his parents. He told them he was a photographer and painter, and promised to send a photo album, writing that “When I receive your address I will send you an album as a sample of what I am doing.” And then in the September 1888 missive, he wrote, “At last I am sending you the promised album. I wanted to do something extraordinary but after all I see that I don’t have the time. The album is similar to all those I make for trade. The title page is different a little, that’s all. And then there is a photograph of my office.” That album, entitled Views and Costumes Of Japan is now in the Pinacoteca Civica di Palazzo Chiericati in Vicenza as a bequest from his sister Emma Garbinati Farsari. On the title page (PL. I-00), in fact, not only is the title Views and Costumes of Japan / sends to his family / the author penned in gold, but also Mount Fuji in the center, and various beautiful Japanese flowers in the margin are painted. The album is bound by both front and back wooden covers, decorated with black lacquer set with mother-of-pearl and maki-e painting. For that matter, the first photograph with signature penned in red ink Adolfo Farsari, on the margin to the right vertically to the Japanese inscription (PL. I-01), shows it to be Adolfo photographed in his office in Yokohama as expressed in his letter quoted above.

The other forty-five photographs in the album, except for four including the frontispiece and the one of the photographer’s office, are all similar to those bound in an album entitled VIEWS & COSTUME OF JAPAN, A. FARSARI & Co., YOKOHAMA (Inv. AC 1-144) preserved in the Yokohama Archives of History, but compared to these the ones in Italy are far better and better preserved. Many photographs in the Yokohama Archives of History bear their number and title at the lower right or left corner of the sheet, while the margin of the sheet intended to contain the number and title was cut from each photograph in the Vicenza Pinacoteca.

On the other hand, the album in the Bertoliana Civic Library in Vicenza appears to have been bound in Italy before it became part of the civic collection, probably after the photographer’s death in 1898. A number of photographs exclusively related to our photographer’s personal scenes appear in it, which have in fact turned out to be of very high documentary value.

Adolfo’s letter of February 1889 addressed to his sister reports, “As you see from a page of the Directory of Japan that I enclose in this letter, I have a numerous staff. 31 including artists, printers, etc., etc., and in addition two maids and a cook.” In addition, Farsari employed his trusted Japanese “manager” whom he had known for about 15 years. The photograph displayed as “E” shows twenty-three men, including two in European clothing, the others in kimonos. In fact, the words in the above letter are confirmed by the Japan Directory page cited above. Without a doubt, this photograph represents the Farsari’s firm in Yokohama, and that European-clad Japanese man could be identified with manager Tsunetaro Tonokura. Other photos respectively show the photographer himself surrounded by the mistress and young prostitutes in the garden of the Jinpuro brothel (“A”) and a girl who was a favorite of his in the same house (“B,” “C”). The following two, entirely fascinating, are photos of the living chess game (“F”, “G”). Most likely Adolphus played chess with living pieces similar to the game still played today in the square of Marostica near Vicenza.

The last photo (“H”) shows a group of passengers aboard the Congo ship on which Adolfo boarded to return home with his small daughter Kiku in 1890. In it on the left side we can recognize the photographer, and in the center of the photograph a little girl identifiable with Kiku. Her features closely resemble those of Kiku in a photo taken in Vicenza on June 4, 1890, three days after she was let into the Collegio Farina, or Istituto Suore Maestre di Santa Dorotea Figlie dei Sacri Cuori in Vicenza.

The exhibition is open until January 8, 2021.

For all information you can visit the official website of theJapanese Cultural Institute.

Pictured: Adolfo Farsari, Wisteria Bower.

An Italian adventurer in late 19th century Japan: the exhibition on Adolfo Farsari in Rome

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