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

Nihon at Large

Introduced to Japan in the 1840s, photography evolved in parallel with the technological advances and economic progress after Japan ended its national seclusion policy which had limited trade with Europe, while at the same time maintaining trade within Asia. Following a similar pattern, Japanese photography started with portraits and commercial photography. Initially,  photography was distributed mostly among the imperial household, samurai(侍), geisha (芸者), Kabuki (歌舞伎) actors and celebrities. After the introduction of the gelatin dry plate process in the 1880s, the production of photos became simpler and more affordable; many amateur photographers began to form in groups. They started the earliest photography clubs and photo magazines, including Japan Photographic Society (Nihon Shashinkai/日本写真会) and Asahi Camera Magazine ( アサヒカメラ) . These institutions later proved to play a pivotal role in shaping Japanese photographic aesthetics and the dissemination of Japanese photographic culture. More than exhibiting works, photo journals and magazines in Japan provided a lively forum for photographers and photography critics to discuss, theorize and debate on the specificities and richness of the medium. Photo magazine issues of the early 20th century introduced a great variety images from abroad and information on photography exhibitions. Serious attempts to emphasize photography as an artistic medium other than its practical uses were made during this time. More photographers started to adopt the new approach of photography and explored its specificities as an artistic medium. The pictorialist style of photography featuring soft focus and pigment printing, which prevailed at that time, echoes the sensibilities of traditional ink painting (suibokuga /水墨画). In 1923, art critic Fukuhara Shinzo published “Light with its Harmony (光とその諧調)”in Photographic Art (Shashin Geijutsu 写真芸術), in which he points out the inherent quality of photographic medium -- light -- embodies the true character of photographic art. 

Fused by drastic external changes, photographic expressions from the 1920s to the end of WWII were under the influence of German New Objectivity, and responded to the social phenomena and reexamined the objectivity/subjectivity binary. Hiroshi Hamaya (1915-1999) was one of the pioneers. Starting as a freelance photographer for newspapers and magazines, he built his career on Tokyo streets. The quirky, theatrical crowd at Ginza was a constant theme to most of his works. Viewers browse the geisha(芸者), shoppers, street vendors, and homeless people in the images in the same way they “shop” the streets. On a commissioned work trip to Niigata (新潟, northeastern Japan), Hamaya was exposed to a rural environment sharply different from Tokyo. He met local ethnographer Ichikawa Shinji there, who inspired Hamaya to later rethink the visual ideology of documentary photography and develop his ethnography project. In the winter of 1940, Hamaya returned to the Kuwatori (桑取) Valley in Niigata to document the local rituals during “Little New Year”.  In the “[Children], Singing as They Go, Drive Away Birds”, he captured a group of children walking in line on the deep snowfield. The lyrical manner contrasts with the asperity, adding a poetic quality to the rural life in Kuwatori Valley. [1]



This photo series was published in his book Snow Land (Yukiguni/雪国) in 1956.

"...the villages had a desolate appearance standing against the waves and the wind and the snow. The landscape astounded me. The realization that people could continue to live even in a place such as this brough my heart to a stand still. On the sea cliff the blowing wind struck us from the side. I was on an unfamiliar snow-covered road carrying a thirty-pound rucksack filled with one hundred flash bulbs and yet was not painful. This violent environment inspired courage. From this point forward that might happen? What would develop? With youthful passion I awaited this unknown world."
Yukiguni (Snow Land) by Hiroshi Hamaya

During the war time, photo magazines turned into a significant propaganda tool which featured military activities. FRONT is a large-format, foreign language photo magazine targeting overseas audiences published by the International Press Photography Association. It primarily covers Japanese military and political affairs. Many professional photojournalists including Hamaya worked for FRONT, taking pictures of the Japanese army bases in Asia to trumpet Japan’s might. After three years of military service, Shigeo Hayashi joined FRONT as a contributing photographer.



In 1945, Shigeo Hayashi (1918–2002) was sent to document the aftermath of atomic bombing areas (Hiroshima and Nagasaki). In “Sanno Shinto Shrine”, the torii arch of the shrine was mostly destroyed; only one pillar stands against a big tree with naked branches. The stone steps to the torii and surrounding residential buildings were burned into pieces. Ruins remain a cultural symbol and unique aesthetics to modern Japan. The sacred and the secular, the new and the old -- all buried in ruins. Plagued by natural disasters and wars, Japanese form their identities under the looming apocalypses.

Departing from pictorial aesthetics, post-war Japanese photography confronted the harsh social truth with critical lenses. Photojournalism and realism dominated the sphere while photographers started to form their communities spontaneously. In art collectives, they questioned the veracity of objective documentation and experimented with creative approaches that give weight to subjective expressions. 
 

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