Spotlight
The Past is Closer than You Think
Many photographs on Old Photos of Japan were shot in the 1880s and 1890s, nearly a century and a half ago. It feels very long ago. But is it?
Spotlight
Inside 1920s
"The Silk Industry of Japan" (2)
Three women harvesting silk cocoons. From a rare photo book about Japanese silk farmers in the 1920s. This article reproduces the book.
Inside 1920s
"The Silk Industry of Japan" (1)
Selecting silkworms for spinning cocoons. From a rare photo book about Japanese silk farmers in the 1920s. This article reproduces the book.
Inside 1900s
The Quiet Power of Japanese Silk
Japanese silk cocoon traders weighing cocoons in the 1900s. Ordinary people like these men, most of them in Japan’s rural heartland, quietly turned the country into the world’s leading exporter of raw silk.
Outside 1890s
Japan's Green Revolution (2)
Japanese women transplanting rice seedlings, a process called taue (田植え). Rice farming was hard backbreaking work. For small farmers it was barely worth the effort. Education, innovation, and fertilizer aimed to change that.
Osaka 1913
Japan's Green Revolution (1)
This unassuming factory in Osaka, owned by the Dai-Nippon Artificial Fertilizer Company, tells the little-known story of Japan’s green revolution. By the 1930s, Japan had doubled the output of six major staples and ranked fifth globally in per-acre fertilizer consumption.