Kyūdō photos

Kyūdō (jap. 弓道, The Way of the Bow) is the art of Japanese archery, which is practiced since the 16th century.
 
About historic photos on Korean archery I have written in my first Blog (Walter Ulreich in Seoul: http://walterulreich.blogspot.com/2014/10/koran-nationwide-archery-competition.html). By and by I dicovered some Japanese historic photos on archery also. The strange design of the Japanese bow always fascinated me.

Wakatsuki Reijirō (若槻 禮次郎, 21 March 1866 to 20 November 1949) was a Japanese politician and the 25th and 28th prime minister of Japan. The text on the backside of this photo says "Premier Wakatsuki of Japan at archery practice in the garden of his official Tokyo residence. He takes a keen interest in the art, practicing whenever an opportunity permits. The Premier is also a judo expert." The photo is dated 12 August 1926 and shows stamps from 'Acme Newspictures' and 'Newspaper Enterprise Association'. This is an original press photo and retouching work can clearly be see on the outfit. 

Unknown archer, the photo is by Photostudio Misawa in Tokio, round 1920.

Hand coloured Japanese albumine print from about 1880-90.

Further reading:
 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ky%C5%ABd%C5%8D

http://www.kyudo.com/kyudo-k.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wakatsuki_Reijir%C5%8D

The devil and his Hasselblad

This is a original scene still from a French film written and directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, 'La prisonnière', (Woman in Chains, Seine Gefangene) which was released in 1968. 

Laurent Terzieff on this photo is Stanislas Hassler, the wealthy owner of an art gallery in Paris and satanic persuador. This film advertising photo is by Constantin Film AG, this is the scan of the original copy, which is now in my archive.

The Hasselblad is a 500C with Planar f2.8/80 lens, quick focusing handle, lens shade and a magnifying hood.

Futher reading:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063458/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_prisonni%C3%A8re_(film)

Girls and motorcycles

Since quite a long time I collect original photos showing early motorcycles, especially from the Austrian maker Puch. Comparatively rare are photos with girls or women sitting on motorcycles. I am always happy to find one.

On the backside: "Ella & Gertie 1914-1918", unknown motorcycle, unknown registration number.

The motorcycle in the front is a Puch 220 (built from 1926 to 1929), the registration number is for Vienna before 1930. The motorcycle in the back seems to be a Puch 250. From Vienna to Schönfeld-Kirchberg are about 120 km.

This and the following photo are Puch 250 from the early 1930s  The 'A' registration number is for Vienna (1930 to 1939) and the 'O' ist for Upper Austria (1947 to 1990).

Sporty AJS 350 R8 from about 1930, registration number is for Munich.

Early Puch TF 250 in yellow, early 1950s, Vienna registration number.