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The Allure of Shashin: Japanese Photography from the 1930s to Present

Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Katsura Imperial Villa (1953–1982)

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Space: Phantom and Fantasy Image, often seen as a surface, two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional world, is an artefact of rendering spatial experience. When photographers press the button, they are translating their perceptions of spaces. This section investigates Japanese spatial conception through a selection of photos of architecture, landscape, and nature.

Japanese philosophize about space. Their spatial thinking is reflected linguistically in their rich vocabulary of describing space and greatly drawn from sensory experiences. The attention to the latter is evident in Japanese architectural design. The Japanese-style atmospheric curation of spaces shapes visitors’ perception in creative ways; it invites a more organic, experiential spatial conception distinguished from the mechanical view that space is objectively measured. The sensory aspect of spatial experience combines the physical and psychological, the body and mind, and the exterior and interior, which have religious implications rooted in traditional Japanese culture.

Graduating Tokyo School of Photography, Yoshio Watanabe (1907-2000) worked as a freelance photojournalist and later as the editor of Photo Times monthly magazine from 1930 to 1934. In 1935, he founded Watanabe studio in Tokyo and started to explore his artistic path. Influenced by the dramatized geometrical style of Eric Mendelsohn and Albert Renger-Patzsch, his photography style conveys a sense of calmness. His shoot of Okada House established his reputation as an architectural photographer and later brought him the significant commission that marked his most prestigious shoot at Ise Shrine.

Ise Shrine (伊勢神宮) serves as one of the venerable sites of Shinto. It consists of over 125 shrines and it is centered around the main shrines of Naiku (inner shrine) and Geku (outer shrine). Naiku dates back to the 3rd century. As a religious pilgrimage destination and tourist attraction, Ise Shrine has undergone regular reconstructions every 20 years since the 7th century. For a long time, visitors were denied access to the inner spaces of inner and outer shrines; only shrine priests and high-ranking officials were allowed to enter. The imperial legacy that Ise Shrine bears became contested during the Asia Pacific War, tied to imperialist invasion and nationalism. After the war, the political image blended with its cultural heritage, which echoes the post-war pursuit of searching for Japanese identity from traditional culture. In 1953, when the shrine was rebuilt, Watanabe became the first photographer to obtain access to Ise, and his photography work also became the first documentation to reveal the inside compounds of the shrines. [1]

In this photo, Watanabe’s choices of angle and composition create a visual intimacy between viewers and the shrines. Instead of shooting the shrines on the front and middle, he employed a low angle and stood at the side, which resembles a visitor's view when entering into a new space. The destabilizing framing and dramatized high saturated tone also feature a tension that hints at the complexed implications and representations of this architecture.

Following in the steps of Watanabe Yoshio, Yasuhiro Ishimoto (1921-2012) became the second photographer to enter the shrine. Born in an immigrant family, he moved between Japan and the United States during his childhood with his parents. In 1939, he went to Northwestern University and studied architecture for two years, which planted the seed and cultivated his interests of photography. He made his astounding presence by Katsura Imperial Villa photo series almost in the same time as Yoshio made the Ise Shrine. Accompanying the design curator at New York’s Museum of Modern Art as the guide, Ishimoto first visited the Katsura Imperial Villa (桂離宮, Katsura Rikyū) in Kyoto in 1953.

Katsura Imperial Villa was built in 1615 by the commission of Prince Toshihito. It is a large villa comprising buildings and gardens which are exemplary of traditional Japanese architecture and garden art. Ishimoto’s geometric-style depiction of its interior demonstrates a modern aesthetics of minimalism and precision. The calculated rigidity of squares and lines in photos is tempered by the light through shoji (障子). When the shoji slides open, a unhindered picturesque view of the garden fills in the center of the frame, highlighting the Japanese house’s connection to nature.

Photography plays a significant role in promoting Japanese architecture worldwide and defining the parameters of architectural design. In translating the three-dimensional world into a two-dimensional view, photographers experience, interpret, alter and sculpt the space. Architectural photography, as an assistance to architectural design and architectural media presentation, configures people’s spatial perception and imagination.

In many photo series, Hiroshi Sugimoto (1948-) adds a time dimension to the spatial expression, reminding us that photography is not only an art of light, but an art of time.

“One afternoon I walked into a cheap cinema in the East Village with a large-format camera. As soon as the movie started, I fixed the shutter at a wide-open aperture. When the movie finished two hours later, I clicked the shutter closed. That evening I developed the film, and my vision exploded behind my eyes. ”

In his Architecture series, he deliberately blurred the landmark buildings in frame, creating an out-of-focus effect reminiscent of the pictorial landscape photography. The blurring approach detaches architecture from its shapes and forms, rendering them virtual, phantom-state beings.
“Building is the grave of architecture. When I face the phantoms of these architectures, I set the focus infinitely afar, and shoot the haunting phantoms. ”
Until the Moss Grows, Hiroshi Sugimoto

Photographer Naoya Hatakeyama (1958-) “redesigned” urban buildings by illuminating their night lights in his Maquettes/Light photo series. Born in northern Japan, Hatakeyama studied photography in Tsukuba University and pursued a career as a photographer based in Tokyo. His portfolio traverses the rural and city, the natural and man-made, the static and dynamic. Regarding photography as a means of communicating with the world, he imbues his photos with ruminative visions that shed new light on city life, built environment and artificial landscapes.