Hyakunin Isshu Stereoscope

Japan, 1900s

We were excited to get this beautiful stereoscope into our collection directly from Japan. We’re in love with the artistic details: the silk brocade hood, the velvet lining, the black lacquer finish with red brush marks. More than that, we were hooked when learning what the images on the fabric represent: the Hyakunin Isshu card game.

We’re grateful to have and share Torin Boyd’s research on this stereoscope:

“Hyakunin Isshu, literally "One Hundred People, One Poem Each", is one of Japan's most famous literary works and the basis of the traditional card game known as uta-garuta (poetry cards). Although the poems themselves come largely from the Heian period, the anthology was compiled later, during the Kamakura period, by Fujiwara no Teika around 1235. It is an anthology of 100 waka poems, each by a different poet. The poems span roughly 600 years, from the 7th century through Teika's own era. Most of the best-known poets represented lived during the Heian period, when poetry was an essential part of aristocratic life.

The maker is unknown, but this exact same viewer construction was known to be sold by the stereographic firms H. G. Maruyama and Katsugakwan during the late Meiji era. A likely candidate for this viewer could be Tokkio Company, the only Meiji-era company to aggressively establish the hardware side of the stereoview business in Japan. Sometimes Tokkio sold viewers under the model name "Panorama".”

~Torin Boyd, American photojournalist & photo historian specializing in the Pacific Rim and living in Japan