Japanese ambrotypes unlike in the West were quite popular until the turn the end of the 19th century. Due to the high costs of albumen paper and studio overhead, Japanese photographers resorted to using makeshift studios, usually outdoors called shajo. By using the readily available resources of glass, kiri wood (paulownia) cases, and silver compounds, the low costs made photography much more available to the general public. Since these ambrotypes could be easily produced at a low cost, they became the domain of photography for common Japanese from the 1870s to early 1900s. These types of photographs differ greatly from those intended for the foreign tourist trade. Therefore, Japanese ambrotypes hold important social significance. The Japanese term for ambrotypes is "shuppan shashin", but in more modern times are simply called "gurasu shashin" or glass photo.