Miura Family Album

An accordion-style album compiled by the Miura brothers, Hisajiro and Eisuke, documenting their travels in Canada and the United States and work with Charles Lang Freer. Includes photographs (including images of the interior of the mounting studio created at the Freer House), postcards, maps, pages from tourist guides, and a letter of thanks from Freer to the brothers' father. In addition materials related to their time in Detroit, the album includes ephemera from Washington, D.C., New York City, Seattle, Boston, Salt Lake City, Ann Arbor, and Japan; the ships S.S. Hawaii Maru/Manila Maru and S.S. Empress of Japan; and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul (Milwaukee Road) Railroad, Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie (Soo Line) Railroad, and Grand Trunk Railway.

Hisajiro (born 1888 or 1889, died 1930 April 20) and Eisuke Miura (b. circa 1890, d. unknown) were Japanese brothers and painting mounters hired by Charles Lang Freer to remount his collection of East Asian paintings in preparation for their donation to the Smithsonian Institution. The brothers traveled to Detroit and worked out of Freer's home in a remounting studio established in the gallery space of the Freer House in 1916-1917. They also traveled to New York City while in Freer's employ.

The Miura family, including Hisajiro, Eisuke and their eldest brother Shinzo (b. 1883 or 1884, d. 1922), operated a mounting studio in Kyoto and were members of the Kyoto Mounters Association, and may have expanded to include a second branch in Osaka. In 1914, Shinzo was paralyzed and adopted Eisuke as his successor. However, in 1921, Eisuke left the family and firm, his activities thereafter unknown. Upon Shinzo's death, Hisajiro took over the business until his own passing.

Miura, Eisuke

Miura, Hisajiro

Gift of Isako Miura.

Box 1

Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Miura Family Album, FSA.2019.12. National Museum of Asian Art Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Gift of Isako Miura.

Processed by Ryan Murray, 2022.

Permission to reproduce and publish an item from the Archives is coordinated through the National Museum of Asian Art's Rights and Reproductions department. Please contact the Archives in order to initiate this process.

The collection is open for research use.