Shimooka Renjō (下岡 蓮杖; March 24, 1823 – March 3, 1914) was a Japanese photographer and was one of the first professional photographers in Japan. He opened the first commercial photography studio in Yokohama, and in Japan he is widely considered the father of Japanese photography.
Source: “Shimooka Renjō”, English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0), excerpt