His wikipedia page is a nice rabbit hole. Seems he was a great dude. His work is archived here and it’s great stuff!
Looks like a man that can beat you at cards even if you cheated. Dapper bastard could wear a hat.
I could never be this cool.
so now I got to sneak in son of a samuri in my speech. well ill be a son of a samuri!
Matsura candidly disclosed that he suffered from tuberculosis, but Okanogan was profoundly shocked when he died suddenly on June 16, 1913, at the age of only 39.[12] Matsura was a respected and beloved figure in this frontier region that he documented with his camera. His funeral attracted more than three hundred Native American and pioneer mourners.
[13] A newspaper article[14] which appeared in the June 20, 1913 edition of the Okanogan Independent states in part:A shadow of sorrow was cast over the community early in the week by the sudden death on Monday night of Frank S. Matsura, the Japanese photographer who has been a part and parcel of the city ever since its establishment seven years ago… Although an unpretentious, unassuming, modest little Japanese, Frank Matsura’s place in Okanogan city will never be filled. He was a photographer of fine ability and his studio contains a collection of views that form a most complete photographic history of this city and surrounding country covering a period of seven or eight years. He was always on the job. Whenever anything happened Frank was there with his camera to record the event… He has done more to advertise Okanogan city and valley than any other individual. Furthermore Frank Matsura was a gentleman in every sense of the word. He held the highest esteem of all who knew him. He was one of the most popular men in Okanogan and was known from one end of this vast county to the other… He was well educated, being a graduate from a Japanese college at Tokio, and had done newspaper work in his native land. He came from a wealthy and aristocratic family in Japan.
