Kusumoto Ine and her mother; also, a Dutch sailing ship at Dejima, Japan
Friday 6 January 2023
By 川原慶賀 Kawahara Keiga. I was intrigued by the seemingly red headed baby. I guessed it could be a depiction of 楠本イネ (Kusumoto Ine) with her mother 楠本瀧 (Kusumoto Taki). Her father was the German scholar Philipp Franz von Siebold. 楠本イネ later pursued a successful career in medicine.
According to Wikipedia it was her indeed, but the red hair may have been a exaggeration since her hair seems to have been brown (the depicted westerners have in fact also this hair color in the picture; maybe it’s supposed to be brown).
There are lots of interesting details in the picture, considering it dates back to the early 1800s.
I wanted to use it on my photo archive QR, but was unable to find a somewhat accurate date (Wikipedia had: date: 1811 - 1842, years of Keiga's employment for Dejima). Later I realized I could date it more accurately from the birth year of Kusumoto Ine (if she was about 2 years the date must have been ca. 1829).
