Daimaru Department Store11Acting head of the family
Shotaro Shimomura's World Travel
1934-1935

Original photo print in a beautiful wooden box with hand-carved relief36The label on the inside of the box lid reads:SOUVENIR PHOTO SKETCHES OF SHOTARO SHIMOMURA'S TOUR ROUND THE WORLD 1934-1935" The subtitle states, "Shotaro Shimomura was a Meiji16(1883)Born in 1900, he was the 1st son of the late Masatoshi Takeuchi, who later became head of the Daimaru department store.11It would be nice to see him as Daigemura Shotaro himself.

Original Print36This photobook, consisting of 100 photos, was9~10(1934~1935)Shimomura, who embarked on a round-the-world trip in 2007 that also included inspection tours, is thought to have given the photographs he had taken himself as souvenirs, distributing them to relevant people when he greeted countries around the world.

The title and name card are exactly the same, but the wooden box has been lightened with tatami paper, and the number of photographs has been increased.12It seems that there is also another version that has been narrowed down to just a few points, and I believe that the wooden box version that has arrived this time was distributed only to a more limited number of important people.

Each photograph is covered with tissue paper listing the place and subject, and we can see that the photographer traveled to a wide range of countries, including at least France, England, Scotland, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Denmark, various parts of North America, Egypt, and India.

His photography skills are quite impressive. It's a shame that the texture can't be conveyed in the images, but his skill and excellent taste shine through in the way he frames the landscape, the composition, the contrast between black and white, and the object he focuses his gaze on. It is said that it was Shimomura's wish to use Vories for the architecture of his store and private residence, and it is easy to see why.

Even the photographs of department stores such as Macy's and Wanamaker in the United States and Bon Marché in Paris - perhaps the result of the selection of photographs as souvenirs - are very descriptive, like inspection shots.1It is wonderful that there are no blemishes. Apart from being a department store-related document, I think that these photographs can be interpreted in various ways, such as a collection of works by an amateur photographer from the early Showa period, a document related to modernism, a comparison with Shinzo Fukuhara, or a businessman's travel experience.

Text by Masago Sato