Historical Portrait
Portrait of H. Miyasaki, Japanese American from Oakland, California
Archive record
Public-domain historical portrait of H. Miyasaki, an Issei (first-generation Japanese immigrant) from Oakland, California, photographed circa 1923.
About this photograph
This portrait shows H. Miyasaki, identified in the archive as a first-generation Japanese immigrant living in Oakland, California, photographed around 1923.
The photographer was Takuritsu Morita, working in Oakland at that time.
Studio portraits from this era often served particular purposes for immigrant communities. Between roughly 1880 and 1920, some twenty million people arrived in the United States, mostly from southern and eastern Europe. Photographs made at home were left with relatives, or made after arrival and sent back as proof of safe passage and employment.
For Japanese immigrants on the West Coast, such portraits carried similar weight. The formal studio setting and careful composition suggest this may have been one such record, though the archive does not specify whether it was meant for relatives in Japan or kept in California.
Compiled from the catalogue record and reference notes on the formats and events involved. The archive record above is the primary source.
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