surfresearch.com.au  habersham : surf bathing in japan, 1857

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These people are, like most Orientals, a nation of ducks, - their greatest luxury consisting in vapour, warm, or surf bathing,- and much of their time is devoted to ...

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... their enjoyment.

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Surf-bathing seems to be peculiar to the lower classes that reside near the sea; and it is probably the attendant exposure which bronzes the skins of those who indulge in it, until the stranger wonders why the natives along the coast are so much darker than those of the interior.

I have seen as many as several hundred men, women, and children,- the entire population of villages, apparently,- rolling about in the surf in one promiscuous heap, and all the while yelling and screaming like so many savages.

Habersham, Alexander Wylly:  My Last Cruise;  or, where we went and what we saw: being an account of visits to the Malay and Loo-Choo Islands, the coasts of China, Formosa, Japan, Kamtschatka, Siberia, and the mouth of the Amoor River. J. B. Lippincott & co., Philadelphia, 1857.. (An account of the travels of the United States North Pacific Surveying and Exploring Expedition 1853-1856) www.google.com.au/books

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Then I noticed that these are from Japan, because the majority of listings said so, and there are Japanese characters on the back right side.

Louise Wile says:
February 20, 2012 at 2:14 pm

the characters on the back spell “postcard” in Japanese. Not all postcards with those characters are from Japan, as when Japan invaded China, they kept the same characters, so it gets confusing.
 

Okinawa Soba's photostream (3,640)

SWIMSUIT GIRLS of OLD JAPAN (Set: 44)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24443965@N08/sets/72157604130143141/with/2336102627/

A. JAPANESE SWIMSUIT GIRLS - Meiji Era Bathing Beauties of Old Japan (18)

It's a board....to take into the surf...but it's not a surfboard. We Meiji girls used them for floats, because most of us didn't know how to swim. But that didn't stop us from having fun in the sun.

B. GEISHA IN HER BATHING SUIT...or UNDERWEAR...OR VICTORIA'S SECRET SOMETHING OR OTHER
This is actually supposed to be a bathing suit. She holds a "float board" for use in the ocean surf. However, the frilled collar and sleeves, the embroidered front design, and the loose white shorts are vastly different from the swimsuits seen in a majority of contemporary "Bathing Beauty" images.

These old pics are from a shoe box full of Late-Meiji and Early-Taisho era images (1900-1920) showing Japanese girls in a range of atypical poses and dress.

Regrettably, Photographers unknown.

C. BATHING BEAUTIES OF OLD JAPAN -- Lazy Days in the Photographer's Studio

Ca.1910-15 image by an unknown Photographer.