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Kyoto 1926 • Kamo River
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The Kamo river and the area around Shijo bridge in Kyoto, Japan. The photo is taken from Higashiyama-ku facing south towards Shimogyo-ku. Seen from this vantage point, the area still looks remarkably similar today.
The building being built is the Yaomasa (now called Tokasaikan). It was designed by US born architect William Merrell Vories (1880-1964) and finished in 1926, which effectively dates this photograph. The building still stands and now houses a restaurant.
US born architect William Merrell Vories, who also designed such famous buildings as the Daimaru Shinsaibashi Department Store (1922-1933), Kwansei Gakuin University (1929) and Osaka Medical College (1930), came to Japan in 1905 (Meiji 38) as an English teacher in the Hachiman Commercial High School in Shiga. He was a very active Christian and supported his many social action programs with an architect’s office and a drug company.
Vories was incredibly active. By the time he died, his company had constructed 1,091 buildings and he had prepared 392 designs for others to use.1
1 Lyon, William H (March 2003). An American in Japan: William Merrell Vories (Hitotsuyanagi), 1905-1964, Doshisha Amerika Kenkyu: 37-60
Publisher: Tahaka&Co
Medium: Postcard
Image Number: 70126-0010
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The Kamo river and the area around Shijo bridge in Kyoto, Japan. The photo is taken from Higashiyama-ku facing south towards Shimogyo-ku. Seen from this vantage point, the area still looks remarkably similar today.
OldPhotosJapan.com — a photo blog about old Japan that reads like a book and works like an archive. All the photographs are from the Kjeld Duits Collection and Pump Park Vintage Photography, and available for licensing. Contact us when you need historical, or current, photos of Japan for your newspaper article, book, documentary, interior design, room decoration, package design, advertising or other project.