In the light of the rising sun

After more than two centuries of isolation, Japan opened its ports to international trade in 1859. In a whirlwind transformation, the country evolved from a feudal state into a modern empire. As a Dutch diplomat in Japan, Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek witnessed these sweeping changes at close range.

Japan’s opening to the world allowed it to be captured through the lens of photography. The photographs De Graeff collected during his stay are among the earliest known images of Japan. Though he did not take the pictures himself, De Graeff helped — albeit unwittingly — to shape the nineteenth-century view of a country still unknown to the West.

IN THE LIGHT OF THE RISING SUN | THE PHOTO ALBUMS OF DIRK DE GRAEFF VAN POLSBROEK, 1857–1869 is the second volume in a series of publications about objects in the collection of the Scheepvaartmuseum, the national maritime museum of the Netherlands.