Snapshots of the Past

Hand-colored photograph of a woman playing koto – Vintage Photo Print

Hand-colored photograph of a woman playing koto — historic photograph
Hand-colored photograph of a woman playing koto. Historic photograph from the Japanese Prints collection.

(Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

Hand-colored photograph of a woman playing koto comes to life in this historic photograph, reproduced from the original with every detail intact. It is part of the Snapshots of the Past archive, gathered over 25 years of research.

Choose the framed print, ready to hang the day it arrives, or the unframed print for a frame of your own. It makes a striking addition to a living room, study or office, and a thoughtful gift. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past has been bringing history to the wall since 2001, for tens of thousands of customers worldwide.

Hand-colored photograph of a woman playing koto

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Ask about licensing or this print

A hand-colored photograph of a woman seated at a koto, the long thirteen-stringed zither, places the instrument at the center of the scene. Hand coloring was a popular way to bring studio photographs closer to the look of woodblock prints and painted scrolls, and Japanese studios produced many such portraits for domestic buyers and export markets from the late nineteenth century onward. Koto music has roots in the Heian period and was long associated with court and elite households, so a portrait of a player often carried notions of refinement and accomplishment. Look closely at the tinted silk robes and the strings, where the color work shows the photographer's attention to texture.

Original scan4,429 × 3,538 px · prints to 15 × 12 in at 300 dpi
Reference3g08495_

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Snapshots of the Past helps heritage brands, museums, historians and storytellers tell stories with history: historic prints, image licensing and historical storytelling drawn from more than 25 years of research and curation.

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