Way of the sword: 19th century samurai warriors prepare for battle in stunning colourised photos showing 200 years of Far East history
- Swedish student Julius Backman Jääskeläinen, 21, has colourised hundreds of historical images of the Far East
- The fascinating photographs document life on the continent which has been the site of many conflicts
- Among the images are Japanese samurai planning an attack in 1868 and US soldiers in the Pacific War
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Life in 19th and 20th century Asia has been brought into sharp focus in newly colourised photos showing the incredible history of the continent.
Among the fascinating images are Japanese samurai planning an attack during the 1868 -1898 Boshin War, a member of the Chinese Yan’an People’s Militia standing with a homemade landmine in 1944 and US soldiers fighting in the Philippines during the Pacific War.
Samurai were the military nobility and officer caste in Japan from the 13th century until the 1870s. They would carry two swords and adhered to the Bushido way of life, a form of chivalry which included loyalty, indifference to pain and taking part in battles.
Student Julius Backman Jääskeläinen, 21, from Visby, Sweden, developed an interest in colourisations in 2017 having always had a fascination with history.
Julius has since colourised over 1,000 images paying particular interest to the Far East.
Julius’ colourisations can take up to six hours each as he must spend time researching the most likely colours which can include contacting historians. He uses Photoshop and Lightroom to carry out his hobbyist work.
The Japanese samurai of the Satsuma clan gathered to plan their attack during the 1868 -1869 Boshin War. The civil war was fought between the ruling Tokugawa shogunate, and those seeking to return to political power, including the Satsuma domain
An image captured by famed photographer Felice Beato shows a group of Japanese officer in 1866. Italian-British Beato was one of the first people to take photographs in East Asia
Kotsou Watari, a 17 year old hairdresser to the officers of the Taicoun Embassy in Paris, poses for a photograph in 1864. His is one of the extraordinary images colourised by Swedish student Julius Backman Jääskeläinen
A group of rice farmers in Japan working on the paddy fields circa 1900 is one of a number of fascinating images documenting life in Asia which have been newly colourised
Two men in China in 1891 stand by the stone warriors placed at the tomb of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty who ruled from 1368 to 1398
In 1938, an expedition led by Harutyun Hovakimyan uncovered victims of the Armenian genocide in Turkey and Syria in 1938. Hovakimyan is seen holding a skull in Deir ez-Zur
In Baguio in the Philippines, the US 25th infantry division troops burn out a Japanese pill box in 1945 during the Pacific War. The division entered Luzon in 1945 to fight for the independence of the Philippines and fought back Japanese troops
A smiling member of the Chinese Yan’an People’s Militia stood armed with a homemade landmine in Shaanxi, China, in 1944. Yan’an became the centre of the Chinese Communist Revolution from 1935 to 1947
Four Japanese men look out over Lake Yamanaka from the summit of Mount Fuji, the country’s tallest mountain, in 1905
Japanese tanks descend on Hubei province in China in the 1940s. The 89 Chi-Ro tanks were used by the Imperial Japanese Army in the Second World War and the Second Sino-Japanese War
A German tradesman captured an image of Japanese people congregating on tables in the woods in Yokohama, 1910