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22 JANUARY - 26 APRIL 2015

METAMORPHOSIS OF JAPAN AFTER THE WAR

Founded in 1977 Open Eye Gallery is an independent, not-for-profit photography gallery based in Liverpool.

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Above: Domains. Garden of Silence, No.52. Hakodate, Hokkaido, 1958. Ikko Narahara

Front Cover: Completing management training at a stock brokerage firm. Ikebukuro, Tokyo 1961. Shigeichi Nagano

In less than two decades Japan went from crushing military defeat to establishing itself as a rising economic superpower. While this period is well documented, there have been few opportunities in the West to see a Japanese perspective on these post-war years. Although photographers such as Araki, Daido Moriyama and Hiroshi Sugimoto have become globally established, knowledge of Japanese photographic history in the West often seems to begin with the Provoke period of the late 1960s. This project focuses on the uniquely turbulent and transformative post-war years to create a picture of Japan through the sharpest and most engaged photographic eyes of their time.

In the immediate aftermath of defeat, the Japanese nation was thrust into a new and uncertain world. The myth of the divinity of the Emperor had been shattered and Japan, for the first time, found itself occupied by a foreign power. The country had been physically devastated by close to a decade of war and deeply scarred by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After years of military propaganda and censorship the nation felt the need to bear witness to the traumatic events of the war and its consequences. Photography naturally had a crucial role to play in this context, as it was seen as a medium that could provide an ‘objective’ visual record. The need to respond to this demand for objectivity and truth would have a major impact on the development of photography immediately after the war.

Thanks to the publishing boom of the late 1940s, many established photographers found themselves in demand. Ken Domon, Ihee Kimura and Tadahiko Hayashi were all active during these years, devoting themselves to documenting the aftermath and consequences of the war. As a result, this period saw the emergence of a powerful realism movement. Ken Domon became its leading proponent, advocating the “direct linkage between camera and subject” and the “absolutely pure snapshot, absolutely unstaged.”

1 Domon saw realism as a “method for connecting oneself directly to society”, “a way of life that is fully engaged”

2 and during the first half of the 1950s the realist movement rose to great prominence.

22 JANUARY - 26 APRIL 2015

METAMORPHOSIS OF JAPAN AFTER THE WAR

Although realism dominated the late 1940s and early 1950s, some photographers did not adhere entirely to the realist approach. At that time the Japanese national identity had been thrown into question by defeat and the American occupation. In response to this, certain photographers turned their cameras towards areas of the country that were invested with a ‘true’ Japanese essence. Hiroshi Hamaya, Ihee Kimura and Takeyoshi Tanuma contributed to the search for Japan’s identity with an optimistic portrait of the strength of the Japanese people and the importance of tradition in their daily lives. Their works distanced themselves from the prevalent social realism movement, echoing instead with the French humanist photography of Robert Doisneau and Henri Cartier-Bresson. In the mid-1950s change began to brew within Japanese photographic circles. It came in the form of a new generation of photographers who had lived through the hardship of war but who were only becoming photographers in its aftermath. They were coming of age during a time of tension and transformation and saw the realism movement of the immediate postwar years as having reached its limits. These photographers were searching for new approaches that would allow them a more personal interpretation of the changes that they were witnessing and a greater contribution to the debate surrounding Japanese identity.

In 1957 the critic Tatsuo Fukushima put together a breakthrough new exhibition Junin-no-Me (Eyes of Ten), which brought together ten of the most exciting young photographers of the time, including Eikoh Hosoe, Ikko Narahara, Yasuhrio Ishimoto, Kikuji Kawada and Shomei Tomatsu. Fukushima saw this exhibition as “severing ties with established photography and establishing a new photography.”

3 Although it was short-lived, this group encompassed a wide variety of different photographic approaches, but all of which shared a fascination with the growing Western influence in Japan and increasingly asserted a new approach to documentary photography.

Japanese photography had gone through a remarkable renaissance and reinvigoration during the 1950s and early 1960s. The dynamism of photography in postwar Japan was part of a larger artistic boom encompassing film, dance, theatre, literature and other art forms. This cultural dynamism was

Young woman. Omagari, Akita, 1953. Ihee Kimura

closely linked to a deep and rapid economic and social transformation, which can be seen in Shigeichi Nagano’s photographs of the birth of modern Tokyo. His photographs document the birth of the ‘salary man’ and echo the sentiment felt by many that the breakneck pace of economic growth was damaging the nation’s social fabric.

The works presented in this exhibition are a reflection of the complexity of modern Japanese identity. This postwar period was characterised by seismic changes in all areas of the economy and of society. Many of these changes were extremely abrupt and threw wide open the question of what was becoming of Japanese identity. In the catalogue to the 1974 exhibition New Japanese Photography, John Szarkowski remarked that, “it would seem that photography is ideally suited to deal with the definition of such revolutionary change.”

4 During the post-war years Japanese photography went through one of the most effervescent periods in its history. Although the artists presented in this exhibition have radically different and sometimes opposing photographic approaches, they are united by their unwavering desire to grapple with the fundamental question, “What is Japan?” It is my hope that their work continues to be shown, in Japan of course, but also in the West. Their images bring to life an extraordinary period of human struggle and social transformation and the commitment that they showed to their times has yet to be surpassed.

Introduction by Marc Feustel

1 Domon Ken, quoted by Iizawa Kotaro in The History of Japanese Photography, Anne Wilkes-Tucker, ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003, p. 211).

2 Domon Ken, quoted in Setting Sun, Ivan Vartanian, ed. (Aperture: New York, 2006, p. 27). Originally taken from “Photographic Realism and the Salon Picture”, Camera, vol. 18, 1953.

3 Tatsuo Fukushima quoted by Iizawa Kotaro in The History of Japanese Photography, Anne Wilkes-Tucker, ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003, p. 217)

4 John Szarkowski, New Japanese Photography, (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1974, p.9)

PUBLIC PROGRAMME EVENTS

MONTHLY EXHIBITION TOUR

8 February 2015 / 8 March 2015 / 12 April 2015 / 2.30pm / FREE / Drop-in

TOWARDS A NEW JAPAN: TALK WITH MARC FEUSTEL 25 February 2015 / Doors at 6pm, talk at 6.30pm / FREE / Booking required

THE GOLDEN SCREEN: FORTNIGHTLY FILM SCREENINGS

Doors at 6pm, screening at 6.30pm / £5-3 per film / £9 for all three / Booking required

3 March 2015 - Stray Dog (1949)17 March 2015 - Good Morning (1959)31 March 2015 - Pigs & Battleships (1961)

Left: Dancers resting on the rooftop of the SKD Theatre. Asakusa, Tokyo, 1949. Takeyoshi Tanuma

Next Page: Fashion show at the Mitsukoshi department store. Nihonbashi, Tokyo 1956. Shigeichi Nagano

JAPANESE BOOK BINDING WORKSHOP 13 April 2015 / 11am / £10-8 including materials / Booking required

BETWEEN TRADITION AND MODERNITY: TALK & NETWORKING WITH REDEYE

20 April 2015 / Doors at 6.30pm, talk at 7pm / FREE / Booking required

KEN DOMON 1909 - 1990

Born in 1909 in Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture. Moves to Tokyo in 1916. Studies as a live-in apprentice at Kotaro Miyauchi Photo Studio in Ueno Ikenohata in 1933. Develops doubts about retail photography and studies on his own with the aim of getting into photojournalism. Joins Yonosuke Natori’s Nippon Kobo in 1935, working mainly on the photo magazine Nippon. Between 1936 and 1938, develops friendships with Yusaku Kamekura, Shigeru Tamura, Shihachi Fujimoto, and Hiroshi Hamaya. Starting in 1940, spends three years photographing Buddhist statues, from as far north as Aizuwakamatsu in Fukushima Prefecture to the Usuki Stone Buddhas in Oita Prefecture on the southern island of Kyushu. From 1941 to 1942, photographs the golden age of ningyo joruri bunraku, Japan’s traditional puppet theater. After the war, promotes the photo-realism movement and pursues projects grappling with societal issues, such as Hiroshima, which deals with survivors of the atomic bomb, and Chikuho no Kodomotachi, which captures the lives of poverty-stricken children in the Chikuho coalfields. In later years, receives the Minister of Education’s Art Encouragement Prize, the Kikuchi Kan Prize, and, in 1974, the Medal with Purple Ribbon.

HIROSHI HAMAYA 1915 - 1999

Born in 1915 in Tokyo. After graduating from the Kanto Shogyo Gakko (“Kanto Commercial School”) in 1933, works for aerial photography specialist Practical Aeronautical Research Institute and Oriental Photo Corporation. Becomes freelancer in 1937, contributing to various photo magazines. Begins covering folk customs and events of Kuwadoridani, Niigata Prefecture in 1940. After ten years working as a photographer during and after the war, begins his life’s work of studying the relationship between people and their climate through the medium of photographic expression. Publishes numerous pictorials, including Yukiguni (“Snow Land”), Ura Nihon (“Japan’s Back Coast”), Henkyo no machi (“The Remote City”), Hamaya Hiroshi Shashin Shusei (“Hiroshi Hamaya Pictorial Compilation”), and Gakugei shoka (“Japanese Scholars and Artists”). Becomes first Japanese photographer to contribute to the Magnum Photos cooperative in 1960. Receives the Photographic Society of Japan’s Distinguished Contributions Award, The Japan Art Grand Prix, ICP’s Master of Photography Award, and Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography.

TADAHIKO HAYASHI 1918 - 1990

Born in 1918 in Tokuyama, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Becomes familiar with photography as a small child due to his family running a retail photo business from his grandfather’s generation. After graduating from Tokuyama Commercial School, goes to work at a photo studio in Osaka run by Shoichi Nakayama in 1935. Contracts tuberculosis and returns to his hometown for treatment. Goes to Tokyo in 1937 and enters the Oriental School of Photography. After working for Tokyo Kogeisha, forms the North China News Photography Association in 1942 and goes to Beijing. After the war, publishes works featuring lively depictions of Japanese people as they begin the recovery against a backdrop of the burned out ruins of Tokyo and the black market. Works on photography for the Bunshi (“Literati”) series in 1948. Appointed vice-chairman of Japan Professional Photographers Society in 1961. Receives Annual Award and Distinguished Contributions Award from the Photographic Society of Japan, as well as the Mainichi Art Award. Also receives the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1983 and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette in 1988.

EIKOH HOSOE 1933 - PRESENT

Born in 1933 in Yonezawa, Yamagata Prefecture. Studies at Tokyo Junior College of Photography. Joins Demokrato avant-garde artist group in 1953. Forms Vivo with Shomei Tomatsu, Ikko Narahara, and others in 1959. His work photographing the body engaged in artistic expression, such as Man and Woman and Kamaitachi, in which dancer Tatsumi Hijikata is the main subject, and Barakei (“Ordeal by Roses”), which features author Yukio Mishima, wins international acclaim as a new form of photographic expression. Receives the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1998. Named a Person of Cultural Merit in 2010.

KIKUJI KAWADA 1933 - PRESENT

Born in 1933 in Ibaraki Prefecture. Graduates from Rikkyo University in 1955 and joins Shinchosha publishing house. Works on the first issue of weekly magazine Shukan Shincho, handling glamour and portrait photos. Becomes freelancer in 1959. Forms Vivo with Eikoh Hosoe, Ikko Narahara, and others in 1959. His Chizu (“Map”) series depicting images symbolising the scars of war receives acclaim. Receives

the Photographic Society of Japan’s Annual Award for The Last Cosmology in 1996 and the Minister of Education’s Art Encouragement Prize in 2004.

IHEE KIMURA 1901 - 1974

Born in 1901 in Tokyo. Learns retail photography at the Endo Portrait Studio in Taiwan. Returns to Japan, and opens a photo studio in 1924. Fascinated by the Leica owned by the captain of the German Zeppelin dirigible that comes to Japan in 1929. Buys a Leica Model A the following year, marking a new start in his photography. Hired the same year as a part-timer in the advertising department of cosmetics company Kao Sekken Nagase Shokai Co., Ltd. Starts publishing a monthly photo magazine Koga with Yasuzo Nojima, Iwata Nakayama, and Nobuo Ina in 1932. Establishes Chuo Kobo with Nobuo Ina and Hiromu Hara in 1934. Becomes one of the central figures in Japanese photojournalism, together with Yonosuke Natori. After the war, continues to be active in photography as a snapshot virtuoso. Elected chairman of newly formed Japan Professional Photographers Society in 1950. Takes up the theme of Akita prefecture farming villages in his photography in 1952. Wins the Minister of Education’s Art Encouragement Prize in 1956.

SHIGEICHI NAGANO 1925 - PRESENT

Born in 1925 in Oita City, Oita Prefecture. After graduating from Keio University in 1947, joins Shukan Sun News weekly as an editor. Hired as member of production staff for the pictorial publication Iwanami Shashin Bunko in 1950. Becomes freelancer in 1955, and receives high acclaim for Japan’s Dream Age and other works. Goes on to work in movies and television commercials. Takes part in the cinematography of director Kon Ichikawa’s Tokyo Olympiad. Receives Award from Camera Geijutsu, Ina Nobuo Award, and The Annual Award from the photographic Society of Japan. Also awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1993. Receives the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette in 1998.

IKKO NARAHARA 1931 - PRESENT

Born in 1931 in Omuta, Fukuoka Prefecture. Stuns the world of photography in 1956 while still a graduate student at Waseda University with his solo exhibition Human Land, which features the industrial island of Hashima Island (known

as Gunkanjima, or “Battleship Island”) and a village on Sakurajima Island. Takes part in The Eyes of Ten exhibition in 1957. Holds solo exhibition Okoku (“Domains”) in 1958 and wins The Newcomer’s Award of the Japan Photo Critics Association. Forms Vivo with Eikoh Hosoe, Shomei Tomatsu, Kikuji Kawada, and others in 1959. Active internationally, spending three years in Europe from 1962 to 1965 and five years in America from 1970 to 1975 based out of New York producing beautiful works of pioneering photographic art—Where Time Has Stopped and Where Time Has Vanished. Receives the Minister of Education’s Art Encouragement Prize and the Mainichi Art Award. Also receives the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1996.

TAKEYOSHI TANUMA 1929 - PRESENT

Born in 1929 in Asakusa, Tokyo. Graduates from Tokyo Professional School of Photographic Industry in 1949, and joins Sun News Photos, working under Ihee Kimura. Involved in founding the Japan Professional Photographers Society in 1950. Takes portraits of numerous artists and literati (bunshi) for the Geijutsu Shincho and Shincho magazines as a contract photographer for the Shinchosha publishing house. Signs a contract with Time-Life of America in 1965. Becomes freelancer in 1972. Publishes numerous pictorials, such as Musashino, Bunshi (“Literati”), and Andes Sanka (“Andes Hymn”). Works with UNICEF taking pictures of children throughout the world. Receives the Mobil Children’s Culture Award, Kikuchi Kan Prize, and the Photographic Society of Japan’s Annual Award. Receives the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1990. Named a Person of Cultural Merit in 2003.

SHOMEI TOMATSU 1930 - 2012

Born in 1930 in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture. After graduating from Aichi University, becomes member of production staff for the pictorial publication Iwanami Shashin Bunko. Becomes freelancer in 1956. Arranges Nagasaki photo series into solo exhibition Nagasaki 11:02. Forms Vivo with Ikko Narahara, Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Kikuji Kawada, and others in 1959. Continues to publish a series of pieces that reveal a profound understanding of his day with regard to social issues such as the occupation and house. Receives the Mainichi Art Award, the Minister of Education’s Art Encouragement Prize, and The Japan Art Grand Prix. Receives the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1995.

Tokyo, 1962. Yasuhiro Ishimoto

YASUHIRO ISHIMOTO 1921 - 2012

Born in 1921 in San Francisco, California. Moves to parents’ hometown in Kochi Prefecture, Japan in 1924. After graduating from an agricultural high school, returns to America in 1939 to study modern agriculture at the University of California. Interned at Japanese American internment camp in Colorado after the outbreak of World War II. Studies under Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind at the photography department of Chicago’s Institute of Design in 1948. The sense of artistic form developed here eventually gives birth to a unique form of photographic expression when he returns to Japan in 1953 and works on photography of the Katsura Imperial Villa and his Someday Somewhere series, which breathe new life into the world of Japanese photography. Receives the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1983. Named a Person of Cultural Merit in 1996.

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