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A camera obscura is a box with a small hole or slit in one side, allowing light to enter the box in just such a way that it projects an inverted (upside-down) image of the external scene onto the interior, opposite, side of the box. These were among a number of European optics-related items introduced into Japan in the [[Edo period]], originally enjoyed as curiosities and later, in the case of telescopes, microscopes, and certain other items, as vitally useful tools.
The earliest known mention of a camera obscura imported into Japan is seen in a [[1646]] entry in the ''Dagregister'', the [[Dutch East India Company]] official logs.<ref>Timon Screech, "Rethinking the Visual Revolution in Edo," in ''Nozoite bikkuri Edo kaiga: The Scientific Eye and Visual Wonders in Edo'' のぞいてびっくり江戸絵画, Tokyo: Suntory Museum of Art (2014), 15.</ref>
Later, in the mid-to-late 18th century, the camera obscura seems to have become more widely known, and accessible, to figures such as [[Shiba Kokan|Shiba Kôkan]] who enjoyed, experimented with, and wrote about European inventions.
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==References==
*"[https://camera-obscura.co.uk/article/what-is-a-camera-obscura What is a Camera Obscura?]", Camera Obscura & World of Illusions, website (Edinburgh, Scotland). 10 June 2020.
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[[Category:Edo Period]]
[[Category:Culture]]
