The last time I shared what happens behind the scenes at Old Photos of Japan was back in July 2024. Since then, many new readers have joined us. As we head into the season of giving, I wanted to take a moment to explain what this project does, why it matters, and why your support means so much.
Birth of Old Photos of Japan
When I moved to Japan in 1982, most of the tools and routines that once shaped daily life — and even much of the traditional architecture — had already vanished, swept away by the modernization that began in the 1850s.
To bring this cultural memory back into public view, I began collecting, researching, and sharing old photographs in 2007. Over the years, I added vintage maps, art prints, and other materials. Today, the Duits Collection holds nearly 10,000 original items and 50,000 digital files from fellow collectors.
As the project enters its 20th year, its scope has grown beyond what a single person can sustain. Preserving, researching, and sharing this history now depends on broader support.
What Is Old Photos of Japan?
Old Photos of Japan preserves the cultural memory of daily life in old Japan and shares it freely with the public — your personal online museum of lived history.
The project rests on three pillars:
What Makes This Project Different?
Old Photos of Japan preserves rare historical materials of daily life and gives them meaning by adding the voices of regular people and rigorous research.
This special blend of images, voices, and research results in visually rich articles that are like documentaries. Grounded in evidence and clear historical context, they bring daily life in old Japan back to life.
What Kind of Items Do You Rescue?
Old Photos of Japan collects photographs, slides, negatives, postcards, art prints, books, and everyday ephemera such as maps, magazines, advertising flyers, etc. The project focuses on objects that are related in one way or another, such as the same place or the same custom.
Why Do You Collect Related Items?
Earthquakes, fires, and war mean that few high-quality prints from the 1800s survived in Japan. Surviving prints were often bought as souvenirs by Westerners visiting Japan during the late 1800s. They are scattered all over the world, far removed from historical and cultural context.
Old Photos of Japan searches for and purchases such scattered images to unite them with related objects. This highlights their historical significance. Seeing a place from multiple angles makes it easier to understand what it truly looked like. Seeing images of a place or custom over time helps to understand how it changed, and why. Combining images with related ephemera brings the topic to live.
Uniting objects that ought to be together enables the creation of one-of-a-kind focused sub-collections that shed light on crucial cultural and historical aspects. For example, a project about Japanese horse racing has united three extremely rare images of the grandstand on the racetrack at Tokyo’s Ueno Park. The Duits Collection may be the only collection to hold all three.
Have You Made Any New Discoveries?
Yes. Articles on Old Photos of Japan, and my study of Dutch diplomatic locations in Japan, have introduced previously unknown facts and photographs.
For example, my research on Jūnisō Pond in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward uncovered eight photos, extending its known photographic history by half a century. Three were newly identified in archives, and five were discovered and acquired for the Duits Collection.
How Can I Access the Material?
The project maintains an image archive and an article database. Your support ensures these resources remain easy to find, browse, and explore.
IMAGES — Currently, roughly 6,500 images of the Duits Collection and associated collections can be browsed and searched in the online archive MeijiShowa. It includes a licensing system for publishers, documentary makers, and other creators, providing essential income for the project.
ARTICLES — In-depth articles about daily life in Japan between the 1850s and 1960s are published on the website Old Photos of Japan and on Substack.
Who Are You?
I am Kjeld (kyelt) Duits. Born in the Netherlands, I have lived in Japan since 1982.
For more than a decade, I ran a successful chain of language schools. After surviving the 1995 Kobe earthquake, I became a Japan Correspondent covering politics, culture, and current events.
I also served as Olympic Attaché for the 1998 Nagano Winter Games for the Dutch and Belgian Olympic Committees, and founded the world’s first Japanese street fashion blog in 2002. It helped make Harajuku Style world famous and was covered by major news organizations like Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal.
I have reported on eight major earthquakes in Asia, and my photographs have been published and exhibited worldwide. I have written two books about Japan and collaborated on numerous documentaries and museum exhibitions.
How Does My Support Help?
Your support helps rescue originals, fund research, and keep the archive freely accessible. Every contribution directly supports hands-on work.
¥1,000 (€5.50 / $6.50) — Helps scan a single photograph.
¥4,000 (€22 / $25.50) — Supports one month of website hosting.
¥10,000 (€55 / $64) — Funds the average acquisition cost of a single item.
Monthly Support — Provides steady funding for research and open access.
How Can I Help?
Old Photos of Japan is an independent, research-driven project that preserves and freely shares visual records of daily life in old Japan without advertising, paywalls, or institutional funding.
Your support helps rescue materials from obscurity and loss, fund the research that brings them to life, and keep the archive freely accessible to everyone.
If you believe that the daily life of regular people deserves to be remembered, not just great events and famous names, I warmly invite you to support this work.
You can contribute through the Old Photos of Japan Donate & Support page — with a one-time gift or by becoming a monthly supporter — or by choosing a paid subscription to this newsletter.
Thank you very much in advance!
I grew up in Okinawa and watched an entire way of life transform within a generation — so your line about tools and routines that “had already vanished” hit close to home. The methodology of uniting scattered objects to reconstruct context is fascinating. I’ll be reading through the archive carefully.
Fantastic work preserving these vansihed traditions! The way this project pairs rare photographs with rigoruos historical context is what sets it apart from typical digital archives. Most collections just dump images online, but adding the voices of ordinary people and detailed research actually breathes life into these moments. It's cultural archaeology that's building something way more valueable than a static museum.