Tomishige Rihei

Tomishige Rihei (富重 利平, May 19, 1837 – February 7, 1922) was an important 19th and early 20th century Japanese photographer.

[1] He was a pioneer of wet-plate photography in Japan and was noted for his excellent large-format, albumen landscapes.

[3] In 1866 Tomishige returned to Yanagawa, where he opened his own photographic studio, but the business was not a success, so in 1868-1869 he once again worked under Kameya as apprentice in Nagasaki.

The photographs from this commission became particularly significant since the castle was destroyed in the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion, and Tomishige's images are among the few showing the structure before its destruction.

He took photographs of the novelist Natsume Sōseki, Hannah Riddell (who first built Kumamoto's first leprosy hospital), Nogi Maresuke (one of the most famous generals in Japan), Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa (who learned photography under Tomishige), Viscount Kawakami Sōroku, Kodama Gentarō and Lafcadio Hearn (a writer).