Adolfo Farsari
Italian, 1841 – 1898
Person TypePerson
American, 1866 – 1950
BiographyItalian adventurer Adolfo Farsari owned the last important Western photography studio in Japan. Born in Italy, he immigrated to the United States in 1863 where he married, served in the Union army, and became an American citizen. Following the death of his second son, he left home and spent the next five years traveling before moving to Japan in 1873. In Yokohama, he established a business, A. Farsari & Co., selling maps, guidebooks, and photographs supplied by various studios. Farsari taught himself photography and opened his own studio in 1885 when he acquired the stock and negatives of Stillfried & Anderson. In 1886, a fire destroyed all of his negatives, and for five months afterward, he toured Japan taking new photographs to replace them. He reopened his studio in 1887 with a portfolio of around 1,000 images. Over the next three years, in an increasingly competitive market, he achieved commercial success by offering quality work at a higher price and using an innovative approach to hand coloring his photographs. In 1890, he left Japan and returned to Italy.