Showa 88

Japan is vibrant, colourful, successful, romantic, dangerous, exciting.

Not the Japan you know?

Japan uses a calendar based on the reigns of the emperors. Currently (2011) we are in the 23rd year of the Heisei Era. The reign of the Emperor Hirohito was called the Showa era and lasted for the 65 years 1926-1989. Showa was everything Heisei is not: vibrant, colourful, successful, romantic, dangerous, exciting.

Many in Japan look back on the Showa Era with great nostalgia.

"Showa 88"（昭和88年） is Kazuyoshi Usui`s (薄井一議) latest project, and has taken the best part of a decade in its gestation. Imagine an alternative reality in which the Showa Era never ended. Showa 88 would have been the year 2013.

Kazuyoshi Usui`s first photo book "Macaroni Christian" (2006) had an austere black and white style reminiscent of his teacher Eikoh Hosoe (細江英公). "Macaroni Christian" was begun while Usui was still a student. In the decade since then Usui has twice won the Japan Advertising Photography Award. "Showa 88" was originally conceived as a series of images - a dying gangster sees flashes of his life passing before his eyes. In bringing "Showa 88" to its final form he decided that the power of photography lies more in suggestion rather than the cinematic conception of an explicit narrative, and in this lies the power and maturity of the work.

Much of the great photography of the Showa era is powerful black and white - just think of the representative work of Hosoe, Narahara, Moriyama and Araki. Colour is the challenge of the next generation, including Naoya Hatakeyama, Mika Ninagawa, Kawauchi Rinko and Lieko Shiga. In "Showa 88" he has made a significant statement in Japanese colour photography, and the images individually are very beautiful.

Not only beauty is in this book but on another level there are significant reflections on Japanese society and history. Japan transformed completely during the 20th Century as the Showa Era gave way to the Heisei era. The manipulative imperialist exploiter of Manchuria in the 1930s turned into the world`s most peaceful nation. The land of the high growth miracle is now the country where GNP has not grown for two decades. The aggressive copier of technology and Western institutions is now the most inward-looking of Asian nations.

And so, a book of great beauty and subtlety about a country feeling its way towards a new civilisation.

The book is available from Zen Foto Gallery, Tokyo

http://www.zen-foto.jp

Featured on "One Year of Books" on tumblr:
http://oneyearofbooks.tumblr.com/post/14665923391/kazuyoshi-usui-showa-88

For Japanese readers please see Usui`s extensive interview with Yasunobu Ichii (市井康延) in DigiCame Watch (デジカメ Watch):

http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/culture/exib/20111214_498277.html

Kazuyoshi Usui website:
http://kazuyoshiusui.com/

"Jizo" Dreams

Satoko Noguchi (野口さとこ) travels Japan seeeking out the Jizo stone figures that stand by roads and paths throughout the country.

The result has been the exhibition and book published by Zen Foto, "Jizo Dreams" (「地蔵が見た夢」)

The Jizo of Japan are often found along paths and old roads, and loved by local people for protecting children. Many also look after travellers and firefighters, and are sought out by those who would know the meaning of their dreams. They comfort to those who have lost children, or babies who did not survive to birth.

Each region of Japan has their own traditions related to the Jizo. They often paint the Jizo`s face, so his expression changes over time. Satoko Noguchi travels the country seeking out Jizos. One of the photographs in this book shows a Jizo with closed eyes. When she next returned to visit him she was surprised to find that he had opened his eyes!

The Iron Age lasted around 500 years. The Bronze Age lasted over two thousand years. The stone age lasted over two million years. We are still getting used to metals, but as human beings we evolved with stone, and we are comfortable living with stone. The Jizo are our ancient friends.

Satoko Noguchi herself writes:

"For many years the Jizo has sat there, watching people pass by, comforted those who were sad, listened to their prayers and wishes, cared for children, and protected the land. The Jizo has had the fathomless compassion and tenderness to accept all and everything."

長い年月その場所で、人々の往来を見守り、悲しむ人をなぐさめ、願いに耳を傾け、子ども達をいつくしみ、
その土地を守ってきたお地蔵さん。そこには、温かく全てを受け入れてくれる何か底知れない優しさがあった。

Exhibition at Zen Foto, Roppongi Tokyo 1-7 Dec2011, "Jizo Dreams" book with photographs by Satoko Noguchi published by Zen Foto Gallery

"Hikikomori" among young people in Japan

Around two years ago I popped into Nikon Salon in Shinjuku and discovered a fascinating exhibition by Keiko Nagatomi (永富恵子) on the people known as "hikikomori". Hikikomori are often young and male, who turn their back on society and become reclusive. They may spend many years indoors, never venturing out.

In Japan, Hikikomori are sometimes criticised, and made figures of fun. Keiko Nagatomi tries to redress the balance, with her photographs, and the words of the subjects, sometimes humorous, sometimes angry, always poignant.

We managed to publish a small book, thanks to Keiko and thanks to the organisation "New Start" that runs a facility to help sufferers return to society. The book is called:

永冨恵子 「ニュースタートの若者たち: 引きこもりから社会へ」
Keiko NAGATOMI "A New Start For Hikikomori” - Returning to Society

As she worked with hikikomori she gained their trust over many months and paintakingly able to take their photographs and invited them to write some brief words about their experiences.

For more insights into the exhibition and Keiko`s work with hikikomori sufferers and "New Start" please also see her interview with The Daily Mainichi" News:



The official numbers certainly significantly understate the problem, as they only count people who have not set foot outside of the house at all in the past six months. Yet even the official statistics show that 700,000 young people in Japan suffer as hikikomori. There have always been people who preferred to stay at home, reclusive or agoraphobic, but the scale appears to have grown to significant proportions in Japan, perhaps signalling a problem peculiar to, and increasingly recognised in, affluent societies.

"Nekopathy" by Masayuki Nakaya

I cannot claim any credit for finding the work of Masayuki Nakaya. I was looing at the "serious" photographs shown on the walls of the Yokohama Photo Festival. Little Bird was waiting patiently, flicking through some of the portfolios laid out in the side room.

When we talked about our favourite works of the festival She pointed to Nakaya's portfolio, which was more of a scrapbook of photographs of his life with his cats and his wife in a little Tokyo apartment.

His work very charming, humorous and human. At Zen Foto we show so much serious photography, much of it in the categories of Black and white, Japanese and Male - there is much great work That fits this description, but it can get rather heavy.

I try to have a balance of styles, with colour, Chinese artists as well as the mainstay classical black and white by Japanese artists. Nakaya's work is colour, humorous, light.

His work lifts us up, is cheerful. Many artists feel that they have to deliver a message, which is deep, introspective, challenges our preconceptions, and inevitably producing a feeLing of weight and seriousness.

Nakaya reminds us that life is to be lived and enjoyed, that we want to be happy even if we live in a grotty little apartment and cannot afford fine furnishings. His photographs are a joyful celebration.

I thought from the outset that his work would work well in a book. So we tried to keep the feeling of his scrapbook portfolio when we produced his book.

Doing an exhibition of cat photographs is also quite a risk for a gallery. How can a serious gallery devote an exhibition and a book to cats? I ask you!

ネコパシー　: 写真　by　中矢昌行　出版：ゼン・フォト・ギャラリー
"Nekopathy" by Masayuki Nakaya, Exhibition at Zen Foto 10 Sep - 13 Oct 2011

A Photographic Quiz

What connects the following photographers?

1957 Yasuhiro Ishimoto (石元 泰博)
1958 Ikko Narahara (奈良原一高)
1960 Eikoh Hosoe (細江英公)
1961 Tohmatsu Shomei (東松照明)
1961 Seiryu Inoue (井上青龍)
1962 Shisei Kuwabara (桑原史成)
1964 Yutaka Takanashi (高梨豊)
1967 Daido Moriyama (森山大道)
1967 Kishin Shinoyama (篠山紀信)

You will agree it is a fabulous line-up, and an era that must be seen in retrospect as a golden age for Japanese photography.

The dates give a clue, for they are the years in which these photographers received an award from the Nihon Shashin Hihyouka Kyoukai. (日本写真批評家協会) This organisation operated between 1955 and 1971. In hindsight it is easy to say these were obvious choices, but it is not at all easy to identify great photographers so consistently at an early stage of their careers.

Most of the award winners have gone on to greater recognition, in Japan and overseas, but one or two have been forgotten by all but the connoisseurs and their work deserves to be seen by a wider audience. I`ll return to this theme in a later post, and in future Zen Foto exhibitions.