"Japan in Transition: 20th-Century Photography from Kimura to Morimura"

"Morooka Koji, Jinrikisha (Rickshaw) in the Snow at Yanagibashi, 

from the Tokyo Sumidagawa Series, 1937. Gelatin silver print, 

19.9 × 26.6 cm. Yokohama Museum of Art"

Japan in Transition: 20th-Century Photography from Kimura to Morimura

Eriko Kimura
October 9, 2019

Presenting images by 28 photographers, the exhibition Hanran: 20th-Century Japanese Photography, on view at the National Gallery of Canada, illustrates the dramatic changes to the lives of ordinary people during the Shōwa period, Emperor Hirohito’s era from 1926 to 1989. Many of the works in the exhibition were taken in Tokyo. The exceptions are images made in places deeply scarred by World War II and the lasting presence of military bases such as Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Yokohama, Yokosuka and Okinawa. Tokyo is particularly significant as it underwent tremendous transformation, with its population increasing from approximately 4.69 million in 1926 to nearly 12 million in 1989, while the country’s overall population roughly doubled from approximately 61 million to 123 million. Twentieth-century Japan is seen in this exhibition as evolving in tandem with the momentous development and expansion of the Tokyo metropolis.

Following the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, photographers, including Kōji Morooka, Hiroshi Hamaya and Kineo Kuwabara, began to capture the changes taking place in Tokyo, recording its urbanization and modernization. How did the mixture of old and new in the city's districts, such as Ginza, Sumida and Asakusa, look to people at the time? Images of workers on the way to their jobs in Marunouchi, the dance halls in Ginza, the city's train station and the influx of Western cars provided people of the era with their first look at the urban culture of offices and bustling streets. The fresh and visual look of the city became a favourite motif of the Shinko Shashin (New Photography) movement, which flourished in the 1930s. Eschewing the romantic Pictorialist approach that preceded it, the group took its cues from Western avant-garde photography. Focusing on the camera's "mechanical eye," the artists created unique forms of expression using techniques such as extreme close-ups, elevated and wide angles and photomontage.

URL: https://www.gallery.ca/magazine/exhibitions/ngc/japan-in-transition-20th-century-photography-from-kimura-to-morimura