THE CHRISTIAN POLAK COLLECTION
Christian Polak is a French businessman and historian of Franco-Japanese relations. Based in Japan, he has established a unique photographic collection of both historical and graphic importance. A part of these treasures was shown in the exhibition “Ishin: the dawn of scientific exchanges between France and Japan” at the Tokyo University Museum in 2009.
Kyotographie photo festival will exhibit only a small selection from his collection. They are not only exquisite photographs, but also valuable documents for researchers. An ambrotype for example, exhibited for the first time, shows soldiers and officers of the Shogun in 1868. One of them is wearing a French uniform, as part of a French military advisory mission sent by Napoleon III. The most famous of these advisors, Jules Brunet, was an inspiration for the movie “The Last Samurai”. He refused to abandon his pupils and fought alongside them in the short lived “Ezo Republic” as explained by Mr. Polak in “Soie et Lumières”. It appears that the famous photograph of Brunet,
supposedly made in Hakodate, was taken in the same studio as this ambrotype. Or could it have been taken in Edo? A new historic mystery to unravel.
