30 Rare Photos Capture Everyday Life of Old Japan in the Late 19th Century

These rare vintage pictures show everyday life in Japan before 1900.

A couple of old geezers hamming it up for the camera, ca. 1862-64

A farmer and his horse in the shadow of cloud-shrouded Mt. Fuji, ca. 1898

A farmer and his wife, ca. 1895-98

A little dog joins a parade of priests, ca. 1900

An old Japanese family in the mountain, ca. 1900

Bakumatsu boy teaches his younger brother to write, while little sister looks on, ca. 1862-64

Boys on the bank of a rural canal, ca. 1898

Coming home from the fields, ca. 1898

Coopers pounding woven bamboo strapping onto giant barrels, ca. 1898

Farmer cutting grain under a hat, ca. 1898

Flower girl of Ohara village, ca. 1900

Geisha and blind masseuse, ca. 1870s-90s

Girl in a produce store, ca. 1897

Hand coloring photographs, inside T. Enami's studio in Yokohama, ca. 1895-97

Mother and child passing a bamboo forest, ca. 1900

Rolling and curing tea leaves, ca. 1897

The bamboo alley, ca. 1897

The beach vendor, ca. 1898

The cormorant fishers, ca. 1897

The farmer and his wife laboring in the Shadow of Mt. Fuji, ca. 1898

The farmer's mother, ca. 1898

The farmers, ca. 1870s-90s

The Geisha with a monkey on her back, ca. 1900

The luggage man, ca. 1900

The men of Imaichi coming back from the market in Nikko, ca. 1897

The old woodcutter coming home from the mountains through the ancient temple grounds in Hakone, ca. 1898

The shell pickers, Yokohama, Japan, ca. 1898

The super toy makers, 1897

Wandering Japanese musicians, ca. 1900

Women at the courtyard well, ca. 1962

(Photos from Okinawa Soba (Rob))