Kimono-Clad Women in a Boat

When I purchased this photo at an antique mall in Laughlintown, Pennsylvania, a few years ago, I assumed that it was a souvenir photo like the ones from Atlantic City, New Jersey, and other sea- and oceanside locales (see below for some examples).

After searching for similar studio photos of women wearing kimonos and posing in fake boats, however, I discovered a few other copies of this same photo, including a hand-colored version posted by Okinawa Soba on Flickr under the title of Studio Boat! - Three Maritime Geisha in Old Japan. The discussions there on Flickr about the origin of this photo established that it came from the studio of Japanese photographer Kusakabe Kimbei (1841-1934) and probably dates to the 1890s (see especially Noel43's Kusakabe Kimbei Compilation, which compares several other Kusakabe Kimbei photos with this one to show that the same backdrop appears in all the photos).

So instead of a unique seaside souvenir photo, this turned out to be an artistic creation by Kusakabe Kimbei that evidently was reproduced and sold primarily to tourists and other visitors to Japan like the photographer's other works. How it ended up in the antique shop in western Pennsylvania where I found it is anyone's guess.