The Reconsidered History of Artistic Exchanges on a Personal Level between Japan and Italy in the 1880s : The Japanese Activities of the Photographer Adolfo Farsari and Count Alessandro Zileri, Secretary of the Retinue of Count of Enrico di Bardi of Bourb

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The activity of Adolfo Farsari as a photographer in Yokohama of the 1880's still remained mysteries. The early 1990's study by Elena Dal Prashed light on his activity for the first time, referring frequently to his newly discovered letters. The present research confirmed an album of photographs Adolfo himself produced and sent to his parents in 1888, now kept in the Civic Pinacotheca of Vicenza, and the property Adolfo brought back with him to Italy or acquired, finally bequeathing to his daughter Kiku and his sister, such as other two albums, five wood-cases of negative glass-plates and a gold ring with a Latin inscription of "Ortus Junxit mors non separabit 19th Februarii 1882", by consulting his testament of 22 March 1895, his letters and other documents kept in some institutions of his hometown, and made photographic reproductions of them.Through a close reading of some articles from the 1870''s and 1880's foreign-language newspapers published in Japan, we traced his activities as a trader in sundries, a cartographer, a publisher and a painter and a photographer from his arrival in Yokohama of 8 September 1876 through his departure of 12 April 1890, showing an outline of his activities as an outstanding photographer.An investigation into the relationship between Farsari's Company and a visit to Japan in 1889 of the Count of Bardi, Enrico of Bourbon and his retinue has also been conducted. Alessandro Zileri, a secretary of the party, kept an unedited diary of their round-the-world tour, composed of 15 booklets. By transcribing and translating a part of the diary regarding their stay in Japan, we confirmed that Enrico of Bourbon and his party often ordered photographs from Adolfo Farsari. It is a new evidence that also shows how ardently foreign travelers desired Yokohama photographs.