Gezicht op een rotstuin op de binnenplaats van een theehuis in Japan before 1893

This is a photograph by Kazumasa Ogawa, taken in Japan at the end of the 19th century. It depicts a rock garden inside the courtyard of a tea house. The image is fascinating as a cultural document of Japan’s Meiji era when the country opened up to the West. The tea house was, and still is, an important institution in Japanese society. It is a space for social gatherings, cultural exchange, and the performance of traditions. Ogawa's photograph offers us a glimpse into a controlled version of nature, but it also speaks to the cultivation, literally, of a national identity. Tea ceremonies are associated with values of harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility. As a historian, I want to understand the place of this image within Japan’s efforts to represent itself to the world and to itself. Looking at travel writing, accounts of exhibitions, and guidebooks to Japan, we can begin to understand what this photograph meant, and means.