nikkoshi

This gate is the entrance to the inner court of Tosho-gu. Tosho-gu was built in Nikko to enshrine the remains of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of hte Tokugawa Shogunate. Located here. The same photo is in the collection of Nagasaki University. NPL also has a photo by Kusakabe taken from inside. NOW

Hi, this photo has been discussed in one of the threads in the Flickr Commons group, and we'd love to have this added to the group pool!

So that image was hand-tinted then?

Yes. The quality is so good that it's easy to believe it's an early, washed-out chemical/light colorization, but this was done by artists. I'm not clear on the specifics of the process (eg, individually done by brush or performed with a block-printing system). A brief introduction is in the Wikipedia article hand-colouring.

This image has been used in the indicommons.org post: Yomei Gate

Now (via @rebeccakatzenberg ; different angle):

Shinkyo Bridge, Sacred Bridge. A very similar photo by an unknown photographer in Nagasaki University's collection dates from before 1902, when the bridge was washed out. They NPL photo at first appears to just be a zoom in of this, but the trees in the back left are obviously different. Possibly Kusakabe zoomed in to avoid the power poles visible in that photo and in this glass slide also in Nagasaki University's collection from 1904. Located here. NOW Best Flickr could do, Closest to the same angle,

Hi, this photo has been discussed in one of the threads in the Flickr Commons group, and we'd love to have this added to the group pool!