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Tamoto Kenzō (田本 研造, 1832–1912) was a Japanese photographer.

Early life

Tamoto was born in Kumano, in the Mie Prefecture of Honshu. When he was twenty-three, he moved to Nagasaki to study western culture. In 1859, he relocated to Hakodate, where he lost a foot due to frostbite.

Photographic career

The surgeon who amputated Tamoto’s foot had an interest in photography, specifically ambrotypes, and Tamoto became his apprentice. It was not until 1866 that he began formally working as a photographer.

In 1867, he photographed the construction of the last castle to be built in Japan, Fukuyama Castle.

Tamoto took photographs of military leaders Enomoto Takeaki and Hijikata Toshizō during the Battle of Hakodate between 1868 and 1869.

Tamoto opened his own portrait studio in Hakodate in 1869. Starting in 1871, he documented the improvements to infrastructure in the Hokkaido region, eventually presenting 158 photographs of the process to the Settlement Office.

References

1. (in Japanese) Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, editor. 328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers (『日本写真家事典』, Nihon shashinka jiten). Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000. ISBN 4-473-01750-8
2. ^ Tucker, Anne; Friis-Hansen, Dana; Iizawa, Kōtarō; Ryuichi, Kaneko; Kinoshita, Naoyuki; Joe, Takeba (2003). The History of Japanese Photography. Yale University Press. p. 363. ISBN 0300099258.

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