Swimsuits of Old Japan

Different, surprising, and even nice, this flickr set of 49 photographs show Meiji-era MAIKO and GEISHA [GEIKO] stripped of their normal Kimono, and posing in the old Bathing Suit fashions of the day. They are random selections from a set of over 150 sitting around here somewhere.

Check out the photo gallery on Flickr!

[via Zaeega]

10 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - September 14, 2008 at 10:13 am

Categories: General Japan Tags: japan, swimsuits

chiablo

Very unhappy Japanese women sold separately.

sillygolem

Japanese people generally don’t smile for posed photos, so they always look unhappy to Westerners.

http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

Cameras steal a part of your soul, after all.
http://www.hormel.com VonSkippy

So all those people in “Japan Probe Personals: Profiles of the Day” aren’t Japanese???

Ron

Sexy!
mortonsalt

awwwwwww yea
edwardhasnewgoggles

That is the hottest gurabia photo shoot I’ve ever seen
PlowKing

Not pictured: recently deceased family dog.
Chris

I don’t understand the surprise over these photos, or even why they are though of as Maiko or Geisha.

This was a time period when japan was heavily influenced by the west. These photos look exactly the same as if they were taken in the United States during that time period. NO ONE smiled in pictures back then, it was believed the white of the teeth reflected the flash too harshly.

The silly part about that was that the photographers didn’t tell them to “smile without showing your teeth” they just told them “DON’T SMILE”.

Anyway, these pics are not very japanese or strange at all… the clothes, hats, hairstyles were typical for westerners and for those dressing up as westerners.

It bothers me that americans nowadays know more about japan than we do about our own heritage.
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Swimsuits of Old Japan

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