On 18 October 1868, a k.u.k. mission to East Asia set sail from Trieste and finally docked in Yokohama on 2 October 1869. On board was the 15-year-old son of a farmer and labourer from Altaussee, Michael Moser. He accompanied the Viennese expedition photographer Wilhelm Burger as his apprentice. When the two ships started their return journey on 14 November 1869, Michael Moser made the courageous decision to stay in Japan. After initial difficulties due to the restrictive immigration laws, he finally achieved a reputation as a photographer in Japan that continues to this day. This fame and the language skills he acquired in Japanese, English, Italian and French in an astonishingly short time led to him being invited by the Japanese government to accompany Japanese delegations to the World's Fairs in Vienna (1873), Philadelphia (1876) and Paris (1878) as a photographer and interpreter.

In 2009, the Austrian Embassy in Tokyo approached Kulturvermittlung Steiermark to put together an exhibition about Michael Moser's adventurous life in co-operation with the Kammerhofmuseum Bad Aussee and Alfred Moser, the grandson of Michael Moser, to mark the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and Austria.
On the occasion of the European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl Salzkammergut 2024, we are once again showing this exhibition about an important but still little-known son of the Salzkammergut in Austria.