Announcement:「ONLINE SYMPOSIUM: REPHOTOGRAPHY × TOHOKU’S RECOVERING COAST, December 14, 2024 」

Announcement from SSJ-Forum:

Produced by members of the rephoto lab at University of Tsukuba. The symposium and accompanying exhibition are funded by a Graphic Culture Research Grant from the DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion.

Rephotography is the collective name for photographic practices that involve identifying locations in previously made images and photographing them again. Following the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami, various rephotography projects appeared along the east coast of Tohoku. Many such projects have immediate value for illustrating recovery and reconstruction, but recent scholarship suggests they can go beyond 'before and after' comparisons to examine also how that change is understood.

The objective of this symposium is to discuss the value and future of rephotography along Tohoku’s recovering coast. As rephotography of the recovering coast of Tohoku extends into a fourteenth year, now is a good time to discuss change in representations of change, and to consider how such changes can continue to be represented as visual culture navigates a post-AI future. For the symposium, we will hear from photographers and institutions who have chosen to revisit a relationship with the recovering region.

PROGRAM (Japanese–English consecutive translation is provided)

16:00-16:05 Opening remarksーWILLIAM ANDREWS (Sofia University)
16:05-16:20 Introduction to rephotography一GARY McLEOD (University of Tsukuba)
16:20-16:40 Speaker 1一MAYUMI SUZUKI
16:40-17:00 Speaker 2一SHIN TOMINAGA
17:05-17:25 Speaker 3一SENDAI MEDIATHEQUE
17:25-17:45 Speaker 4一PENGKUEI BEN HUANG
17:45-18:05 Speaker 5一TOSHIYA WATANABE
18:15-18:55 Moderated discussion一all speakers
18:55-19:00 Closing remarksーGARY McLEOD (University of Tsukuba)

***All times are Japan Standard Time***

Held via Zoom. All are welcome. Participation is free, advance registration required.
Registration deadline is Thursday, December 12th.
To register, click here: https://forms.office.com/r/Er4Nu1f3jp

An exhibition related to the symposium is being held at University of Tsukuba until December 26th. A digital twin of the exhibition can be visited here: https://matterport.com/discover/space/ufxNpg62oGA

"Homō loquēns ‘talking human’ Wonders of Language and Languages" - Special Exhibition at the National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka / 1 Sep 2022 – 23 Nov 2022

Dealing with “language”, which is too familiar for most people to think about, over 50 researchers inside and outside Japan, specializing not only in linguistics but also in anthropology, engineering, education, brain science and cognitive psychology, collaborate and show the wonders of language. As part of the exhibition, an installation that is inspired by language will be displayed. It was created by video artist YAMASHIRO Daisuke.

Thursday, September 1st 2022 – Wednesday, November 23, 2022
The Special Exhibition Hall, National Museum of Ethnology
Language: Japanese, Japanese Sign Language, English
Tickets: ¥880 (Adults), ¥450 (College and University Students), Free (High School Students and Younger)

https://loquens.site/

https://www.minpaku.ac.jp/en

"Japanese Photography" - Two Current Exhibitions in Tokyo -and- (Bonus!) Two Good Sources

Caption: 'Boy Wearing Armor' by Suzuki Shinichi (c. 1882-1897) | GOTO SHINPEI MEMORIAL HALL

Photo and text from The Japan Times, 3/28/17.

There are two photography exhibitions currently showing at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum that are thematically and chronologically unrelated, but together make a strong testimony of the extent to which Japan embraced photography from its earliest beginnings, and how the medium is a strong suit in Japan’s contribution to the contemporary art scene. One is a celebration of the extensive history of Japanese photography in the 19th century; the other a solo show featuring the extraordinary work of photographic artist Hiroshi Yamazaki.

“Dawn of Japanese Photography: The Anthology” is the latest volume in the museum’s long-term project to bring together images from archives around the country in an extensive display of samurai portraits, landscapes, carte de visite (the pictorial and more socially oriented version of the business card) and documentary photography of construction, war and natural disasters.

The majority of images were taken by Japanese photographers for Japanese viewers, but there are a significant number by foreign travelers, some whose visits were short, such as Commodore Perry’s daguerreotypist, Eliphalet Brown, and others who were resident in Japan for several years, most notably British subject Felice Beato and the Austrian Baron Raimund von Stillfried. There is also the rare sight of samurai in 19th-century France, which resulted from the renowned photographer Nadar taking the portraits of the Second Japanese Embassy to Europe, while they were in Paris in 1864.

Around the turn of the century, the foreign market for photography in Japan favored the alluring, exotic and fantastical. This was catered to by native and nonnative photographers alike, who helped cement the iconography of Japan as the land of cherry blossoms, Fujiyama, samurai and geisha. Photography for the domestic market was more austere, personal or practical, and the value of this exhibition is to focus on the wealth of material that has, for various reasons, been underrepresented in global histories of photography.

Expressing a quiet nobility, samurai portraits taken by Nagasaki-born photographer Hikoma Ueno, for example, have a very different feel to the hand-colored images known as “tourist photos” or Yokohama Shashin destined for export, which sometimes featured day laborers or studio assistants dressed up in samurai armor in a kind of early cosplay.

The print chosen as the main promotional image for the exhibition is one of the most well-known examples of early Japanese photography: the portrait of handsome reactionary Toshizo Hijikata (1835-69) by Tamoto Kenzo. The photograph has created a romantic legacy for the sub-commander of the rebel Shinsengumi, a group that supported the last shogun and opposed the restoration of the Emperor Meiji. Hijikata lives on as a popular manga and anime character in part due to this one photograph.

The choice of Tamato’s image is good marketing, and its connection between early photography to contemporary popular culture is entirely appropriate. With a few exceptions, the exhibits were originally never intended to be viewed as high art. The material qualities of the miniature silvery mirrors of daguerreotypes, framed in ornate gold frames or the handmade crimson lacquerware of a camera body (1863) are, nevertheless, a delight, and possibly a revelation for a generation used to digital photography viewed on screens.

The exhibition shows that in its nascent stages, photography was valued for its ability to approximate the view of the human eye and to preserve a sight over time. Spreading through Japan with the ideals of the enlightenment, photography was, as the Japanese word “shashin” (literally “truth copy”) suggests, the scientific method made visually manifest. By contrast, the concurrent exhibition “Yamazaki Hiroshi/Concepts and Incidents” shows what happens when photography is liberated from the task of being literal.

Hiroshi Yamazaki is best known for his 1970s work that used long exposures to show the path of the sun through the sky. Focusing on process, rather than subject matter, Yamazaki is expert at making the ordinary look strange, and continues to create work that is strikingly ingenious.

Early pieces show that Yamazaki could imbue even relatively straight photography with unusual intensity and a sense of the uncanny. A 1969 portrait of an unshaven, plaintive-looking Tatsumi Hijikata, the founder of butoh, kneeling in a hallway by sets of shoes, hints both at the creative energy and abjection of the choreographer and performance artist, with a composition of lines that is dynamic but also isolates Tatsumi from his quotidian surroundings.

The 1978 series “The Sun is Longing for the Sea” experiments with photographing the sun over time, resulting in images that feature a blazing white line reflected in blurred seascapes. Yamazaki called these experiments “optical incidents” — the action of working with photographic equipment and using their particular characteristics to go beyond human vision. More recent work looks at chromatic aberration — the optical defect that photographers generally try to avoid through buying expensive lenses, or using software correction — and photograms of hands creating ripples in water.

“Dawn of Japanese Photography: The Anthology” runs until May 7, ¥700; “Yamazaki Hiroshi/Concepts And Incidents” runs until May 10, ¥600, at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. (Thu. and Fri. until 8 p.m.). Closed Mon.

For more information: https://topmuseum.jp/e/contents/index.html

Source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2017/03/28/arts/now-time-ripples-photography/

We have been discussing "Japanese Photography" in class lately. These two sources have been helpful:

Photography and Japan by Karen M. Fraser (2011)

Blurb from The University of Chicago Press Books: In Photography and Japan, Karen Fraser argues that the diversity of styles, subjects, and functions of Japanese photography precludes easy categorization along nationalized lines. Instead, she shows that the development of photography within Japan is best understood by examining its close relationship with the country’s dramatic cultural, political, and social history.

“Uniqueness” in Japanese Art Photography: Toward Situating Images in Context by Pablo Figueroa (2015)

First paragraph from article available at Asia Pacific Perspectives: All nations assert cultural difference through contrast with other countries, and Japan is no exception. However, the country believes it is extraordinarily unique, and has built pervasive cultural myths that claim uniqueness to anything Japanese. Could “uniqueness” in Japanese art photography be one of those myths?

David Bowie Exhibition in Tokyo

Image and text from David Bowie is webpage.

DAVID BOWIE is, is the first international retrospective of the extraordinary career of David Bowie ‒ one of the most pioneering and influential performers of modern times. Over 300 objects including handwritten lyrics, original costumes, photography, set designs, album artwork and rare performance material from the past five decades are brought together from the David Bowie Archive for the very first time. The exhibition demonstrates how Bowieʼ s work has both influenced and been influenced by wider move ments in art, design, theatre and contemporary culture and focuses on his creative processes, shifting style and collaborative work with diverse designers in the fields of fashion, sound, graphics, theatre and film. Seen by 1.5 million people worldwide at sell-out shows in London, Chicago, Sao Paolo, Paris, Berlin, Melbourne, Groningen and Bologna, DAVID BOWIE is comes exclusively to Tokyo, its only Asian venue.



More information: http://davidbowieis.jp/en/

"Japan’s picture ID before World War II"

Images and text borrowed from The Japan Times, 2/2/16.

[T]he Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo currently has an exhibition of tourism posters and other promotional material from the 1920s and ’30s. It is a fascinating and at times unusually beautiful glimpse into how different art movements, regional craft practices and the spirit of the times contribute to forming commercial visual culture.

Given that the function of a promotional poster is to seduce you, with perhaps only a few seconds in which to do it, you can expect to feel pandered to — complex history and culture, beautiful landscapes and far-east exoticism have been condensed into powerfully sweet eye-candy. A surprising range of media were employed in this, including traditional woodblock prints, painting and photography. For many of the exhibits, the level of creativity and design is very high, commensurate with the desire to show off Japan at its best.

Apart from this, the exhibition is a great opportunity to consider how Japan’s national identity was constructed in the interwar years. It should be no surprise that the “come hither” message relied heavily on sexuality to catch the viewer’s eye. Many of the posters use images of young women in kimono as a stand in for Japan as a whole.

In a 1911 poster for the South Manchurian Railway by artist Renzo Kita, a demure female companion sits across from us in a railway carriage with the sun setting behind an ancient stupa in the window behind her. The poster is sponsored by Thomas Cook, and is in the style of an Edwardian illustration. The copy tells us that the new rail link brings London “within a fortnight’s journey from Tokyo, Peking and Shanghai, thus saving much time and money, as well as the tedium of a long sea-voyage.”

Our female companion is depicted in a style characteristic of the Gothic period to portray aristocratic or sacred figures; languid, expressionless, elongated and pale. Her blue kimono is decorated with white lilies, symbolic of chastity and purity. On her obi is a butterfly, the symbol of the soul, and perhaps a nod to the opera by Puccini, which had premiered seven years earlier. The undergarment below the kimono is a warm ruddy orange, and using a visual pun common to shunga (erotic prints), appears at the edge of the sleeves as wrinkled slit-shaped orifices. The artist seems to be the same Renzo Kita who later created the solemn historical painting “Last Moments of Admiral Yamaguchi,” which commemorates the admiral’s death in the 1942 Battle of Midway.

...

“Visit Japan: Tourism Promotion in the 1920s and 1930s” at the The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo runs until Feb. 28; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. ¥430 (includes admission to the “MOMAT Collection”). Closed Mon.

Source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2016/02/02/arts/japans-picture-id-world-war-ii/

Exhibition website: http://www.momat.go.jp/english/am/exhibition/visit_japan/

"Style complements functionality at Shibuya exhibition of aids for disabled"

Text and photos from The Japan Times, 11/13/15.

Caption: People Design Institute's Shinji Sudo looks at Wheelchair DJ, which has wheels that play music when spun and can be 'scratched' back and forth like a record.

Caption: Shinji Sudo of exhibition organizer People Design Institute shows off a range of prosthetic arms.

A new design exhibition in Tokyo is aiming to give the public perception of disability a makeover by placing style at the top of the agenda.

The exhibition in Shibuya Ward, which runs until Monday and is part of a wider event titled Super Welfare Expo, showcases a range of wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs and other disability aids, with the emphasis as much on fun as functionality.

“When you think about glasses, nowadays they’re fashion items,” Shinji Sudo, of event organizer People Design Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping minority people, told The Japan Times.

“In the past, glasses used to be prescribed to you by doctors. Now, people have no stigma about having bad eyesight. I’d like that to be the case for people who use wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs too.”

Among the products on display at the Shibuya Hikarie venue is an electric wheelchair with a giant back-mounted speaker in the shape of a sail, and wheels that can be pounded like drums.

Another, called Wheelchair DJ, has wheels that play music when spun, and can be “scratched” back and forth like a record.

Elsewhere is a selection of prosthetic legs with a sci-fi flavor, reminiscent of the iconic HR Giger design for the creature in the movie “Alien.”

Sudo, whose son has cerebral palsy, explains that the products are intended to be shown off, not hidden away as a mark of shame.

“I have a disabled son,” he said. “When I use medical welfare services, quite honestly I feel very uncomfortable. One of the reasons for that is the image, which is one of feeling pitied by others. I want to turn that completely around so that the image people have is of it being ‘cool’ and ‘cute.’

“In Japan, when you go to get a wheelchair, your options are limited. You usually get the one that has been recommended to you by the doctor or medical facility. I want to show people that there are lots of different kinds in the world that you can buy.”

Visitors to the exhibition found themselves leaving with a different perspective on the 3.9 million people with a registered physical disability currently living in Japan.

“There is a gloomy and difficult image surrounding disability, so I thought ‘oh, so things have developed as far as this?’ ” said able-bodied 30-year-old Akio Ota. “I think it’s cool.

“From an able-bodied person’s point of view, you have an image of something where design isn’t really taken into consideration and the quality is low. But this is very stylish and cool and something that I would use myself.”

Sudo hopes that the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics can provide further positive inspiration, but cautions that it will take more than just a sporting event to change perceptions.

“I don’t think things will change totally in the space of five years,” he said. “But one characteristic of Japanese people is that once a switch in our feelings flips, we all move on to a new phase pretty quickly.

“Shibuya is a great place for breaking new ground in terms of culture. First I’d like to see handicapped people mixing freely as the norm here.”

According to the 2011 World Report on Disability, compiled by the World Health Organization and the World Bank, Japan has one of the lowest employment rates among working-age people with disabilities. Fewer than 1 in 4 disabled people were working in 2003.

Sudo believes it is up to everyone to help overcome those barriers.

“I’d like to see more disabled people going out and interacting in society,” he said. “In Japan, handicapped people don’t have so many opportunities to mix. They are put in a different class in school. If they find themselves in difficulty, I’d like them to be able to ask people for help.”

Source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/11/13/national/style-compliments-functionality-shibuya-exhibition-aids-disabled/

Super Welfare Expo webpage (in Japanese): http://www.peopledesign.or.jp/fukushi/

『超福祉展2014』Super Welfare Expo 2014 Facebook photo album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.426578964213812.1073741830.426453157559726&type=3

Logical Emotion Exhibition

Photo borrowed from Japan Today's Picture of the Day, 5/23/15. Caption reads: Visitors walk through the installation “Love is Calling” (2013) by Yayoi Kusama at the exhibition “Logical Emotion: Contemporary Art from Japan” in the Art Museum Moritzburg in Halle (Saale), central Germany, Friday. The exhibition, which presents the works of 13 Japanese artists, runs through July 26.

Source: http://www.japantoday.com/category/picture-of-the-day/view/art-attack-4

Exhibition description (from Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow):

The leitmotif of the exhibition can be encapsulated in two concepts – often treated as each other’s antithesis – ‘logic’ and ‘emotion’. The organisers of the exhibition hold that the tension between these concepts is the pivot of contemporary Japanese art. The exhibition aims to discover the essence of the ‘Japanese identity’, presenting it in different contexts and attempting to define distinguishing features of its aesthetics.

At the exhibition we present the works of 13 Japanese artists including an architect and a graphic designer, produced in media such as photography, painting, drawing, manga, sculpture, installation, object, video, ceramic and poster.



Logical Emotion Official Website: http://www.stiftung-moritzburg.de/

I hope my friends in Germany will have a chance to check this out.

Life of Cats: Selections from the Hiraki Ukiyo-e Collection at the Japan Society - And Cats Understanding Sign Language!

Image and text borrowed from Japan Society.

Announcement: Life of Cats: Selections from the Hiraki Ukiyo-e Collection

Friday, March 13 – Sunday, June 7, 2015

Since arriving in Japan aboard Japanese ships transporting sacred Buddhist scriptures from China in the mid-sixth century, cats have proceeded to purr and paw their way into the heart of Japanese life, folklore, and art. Life of Cats: Selections from the Hiraki Ukiyo-e Collection illustrates the depth of this mutual attraction by mining the wealth of bravura depictions of cats to be found in ukiyo-e woodblock prints of the Edo Period (1615-1868).

Ninety ukiyo-e prints in the exhibition are on loan from the esteemed Hiraki Ukiyo-e Foundation whose holdings are revered in Japan. Select prints, paintings, sculptures, and other works borrowed from U.S. collections complement these prints, making the exhibition over 120 artworks. With cross-cultural and multi-generational appeal, Life of Cats takes viewers on a wild ride through Japan’s love affair with our feline friends.

Lots of great images on the website, by all means check it out!

Link: http://www.japansociety.org/life-of-cats

Woman With A Hearing Loss Taught Her Deaf Cat Sign Language, Including The Word 'Dance'



Story borrowed from The Huffington Post, 3/26/15.

When Kim Silva retired from teaching at the American School for the Deaf, she decided to start teaching sign language to her cats.

"Guess I missed the kiddies so I began teaching the kitties!" Silva says.

It all started after setting sights on a deaf cat named Bambi.

...

Silva's previous teaching experience was pretty much limited to humans, but she was optimistic that American Sign Language would help Bambi live most fully -- and that the cat would be a perfectly good student.

"Since my daughters learned signs from infancy, I had ideas how to introduce sign," she says.

Bambi was at a rescue shelter in Texas, though, and it would take a while before she could be brought to Connecticut, where Silva lives. In the meantime, she figured, she might as well get started with the cats she already had, even though both of them could hear.

A lot of deaf dogs have learned ASL. Groups like the ASPCA say training cats in general is possible (always using positive reinforcement, of course). Still, Silva says even "some deaf people have questioned if cats could learn sign."

"Bobcat immediately understood," she says. "My other cat, Bear, was very old and was not interested."

Bobcat learned one sign after another "until he learned the new vocabulary," Silva says. "Bobcat was a sponge for sign language! He showed off. He was fabulous."

Bambi picked up the signs even more easily, since, Silva explains, she had "peer reinforcement and copied Bobcat."

...

The cats have a delightfully expansive vocabulary. Among the words they now know are: "come," "more," "sit," "stay," "shake," "high five," "sleep," "circle," "shrimp,' "play," "canned food," "finish" and "dance" (though sometimes they don't feel like doing that one). They also know "off," which Silva must spell out, letter by letter.

...

While the talented cats respond to Silva's commands, they don't actually sign themselves -- at least not a whole lot.

Read the whole story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/26/cats-sign-language_n_6940892.html

My cat, Mugi-chan, in addition to her own native language, understands English, Japanese and Japanese Sign Language. She just ignores them all...

VAOJ Student Photo Exhibition

"Power shot / Examining the works of Kishin Shinoyama"

Images borrowed from SHINOYAMAKISHIN.JP.

Story from The Daily Yomiuri Online, 10/5/12:

A photography exhibition featuring works by Kishin Shinoyama, who has spent his career on the cutting edge of photography, recently opened at the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo.

THE PEOPLE by KISHIN, which focuses on "the power of photography," has about 120 portraits taken over the last 50 years covering a variety of themes.

The exhibit features huge photos, including a 3.4-meter by 3.4-meter portrait of the late actress Reiko Ohara and a 7-meter-wide picture of kabuki female role-player Bando Tamasaburo.

"Everyone will be surprised [at the power of the oversized photos]. Even I'm surprised," Shinoyama said before the opening.

Shinoyama, 71, has captured shining moments of showbiz personalities who added color to their times and witnessed the scenes that engaged people's imagination. His photos distill the essence of his subjects, conveying their refined beauty or their literally naked power.

The photos on display are definitive images spanning half a century, with Shinoyama capturing "the moment the god of photography descended."

Some of them, such as those of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, pop singer Momoe Yamaguchi, novelist Yukio Mishima, actresses Sayuri Yoshinaga and Rie Miyazawa and all-girl idol group AKB48 are dramatically enlarged.

Blowing up the photos takes advantage of the generous exhibition space to best show the impact of the photos.

The exhibition was first held at the Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, from the end of June through mid-September and attracted more than 30,000 people.

As the Tokyo venue is more spacious and has higher ceilings than the Kumamoto museum, the Tokyo exhibition will give audiences a better opportunity to experience the powerful energy inherent in the photos. After Tokyo, it will move to Hiroshima Prefecture and Niigata and run through March 2014.

The pictures are separated into five categories--GOD (The deceased), STAR (Celebrities), SPECTACLE (Dream worlds that take us to another dimension), BODY (The body undressed--beauty, eroticism, struggle) and ACCIDENTS (March 11, 2011--Portraits of victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake).

===

The power of photography

Asked about what makes a powerful photograph, Shinoyama said, "It's a photo with the potential of having a strong impact on the subject, the photographer and the viewers in a way that transcends space-time, truth or falsehoods, and so on."

As to how to take a powerful photo, he said: "A photographer should respect the subject and not have a condescending or flattering attitude. The photographer must correctly read the atmosphere and create a relaxing environment. Their senses should be heightened to the maximum before pressing the shutter button."

Shinoyama, when asked how to nurture such power, replied: "Listen to good music, watch plays, travel when you feel like it, associate with good friends, eat tasty foods...Anything will do. Nurture a sensibility that makes you want to react strongly when you meet good subjects and shoot them."

Meanwhile, THE PEOPLE by KISHIN is a new challenge.

"This series of shows is the first large-scale exhibition for me in public museums in Japan. I feel that photographs are alive, so they are not suitable for display in a museum. I thought of such a display as 'a grave for my work,'" he said.

"But when trying to prepare the exhibition in a way that the photos would engage viewers, I felt the exhibition breathed a new life into my work. I was moved to discover that. My photos have always been for publications, so it was the first time for me to see such huge prints," he added.

In the exhibit, photos of celebrities occupy a large amount of space.

"I pay attention to the atmosphere of the times and follow the demand for stars of the era. For example, Momoe Yamaguchi in the 1970s, Seiko Matsuda in the 1980s and currently AKB48. So viewers become emotionally involved in the photo subjects and think back nostalgically about that time," he said.

Shinoyama does not like his exhibition referred to as a "retrospective."

"I always move in a positive direction and remain curious. Through this exhibition I want to keep an open mind to taking on new challenges," he said.

"THE PEOPLE by KISHIN" through Dec. 24 at the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. Open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. (8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays). Last entry 30 minutes before closing. Closed on Mondays. If Monday is a public holiday, the museum will be open that day and be closed the following Tuesday. (Open Oct. 8 and Dec. 24, closed Oct. 9). The nearest station is Hatsudai Station on Keioshinsen line. Admission: 1,000 yen for adults; 800 yen for university and high school students; 600 yen for middle and primary school students; 500 yen for those aged 65 and older. For more information, call the gallery at (03) 5353-0756.

Link: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/arts/T121002001892.htm

Kishin's website (in Japanese): http://www.shinoyamakishin.jp/

"Comfort women photographer pleased by Japan court"

From Japan Today, 6/29/12:

A South Korean photographer whose Tokyo exhibition on Japanese wartime sex slaves only went ahead after a court injunction said Thursday it was important to display the work to inform the public.
Japan-based Ahn Sehong said he had been disappointed when camera maker Nikon abruptly cancelled his exhibition, which features 37 pictures of some of the now-elderly Korean women forced into sex slavery during World War II.

In January a company selection committee had approved Ahn’s proposal for the show at Nikon Salon in the Shinjuku business district of Tokyo, to be held from June 26-July 9, he told reporters.

But on May 22 the company unexpectedly told him it was shelving the show, three days after a newspaper article about it appeared.

It was only the intervention last week of Tokyo District Court, which ordered Nikon to provide a display space, that ensured the show would go ahead.

“I felt I needed to inform (the public) about these elderly women, former comfort women,” he told a press conference.

Ahn said he believed nationalists had pressured Nikon after the article appeared, making the company reluctant to be associated with the exhibition.

Personal threats from rightwingers increased when the show started Wednesday, said Ahn, who moved his family outside the central city of Nagoya after receiving a number of abusive emails and phone calls.

The issue is a sensitive and divisive one in Japan, whose military exercised a brutal rule over Korea, parts of China and other areas of Asia during World War II.

Many Japanese agree that young Asian women were forced into sex slavery for Japanese soldiers during the war.

But some argue that local pimps and businesses tricked the women into prostitution rings, with Japanese soldiers buying their services as customers and having no direct role in the running of brothels.

The issue continues to cause friction between Seoul and Tokyo, with South Korea repeatedly asking for talks on compensation, overtures Japan has turned down, citing the 1965 compensation deal that led to the normalisation of relations.

Nikon has been tight-lipped about the on-off-on show.

“We told Mr. Ahn that we would like to cancel the show after comprehensively reviewing various factors,” a Nikon spokesman said Thursday, refusing to elaborate.

The company has objected to the court injunction, he added.

Link: http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/comfort-women-photographer-pleased-by-japan-court


UPDATE!

Makiko Segawa provides more details in her Japan Focus article:

Nikon, Neo-Nationalists and a Censored Comfort Women Photo Exhibition

Link: http://japanfocus.org/-Makiko-Segawa/3783

"Daido Moriyama: On The Road" (in Osaka)

Image borrowed from The National Museum of Art, Osaka.

"Daido Moriyama: On The Road"

A Retrospective Solo Exhibition 

June 28 – September 19, 2011 

The National Museum of Art, Osaka 

A retrospective which reflects upon half a century of Moriyama‟s works since his debut in 1965, consisting of an overall of 400 photographs taken in accordance with the publication of over 10 major portfolios. Approximately 100 color photographs taken of Tokyo will also be presented as part of the exhibition.

Be sure to check this exhibition by one of Japan's most famous contemporary photographers if you are in Osaka during the summer.

For more information see, the National Museum if Art, Osaka web page (in Japanese): http://www.nmao.go.jp/exhibition/index.html

Spring 2011 Visual Anthropology of Japan Photo Exhibition

Two of my students are holding a photo exhibition on campus this week and next week. Their themes are contemporary tattoos and interactions with deaf people, respectively. Both of them have some really nice shots, so please check it out. This is the second student photo exhibition for the visual anthro class. The first last fall dealt with martial arts clubs on campus. I hope this tradition will continue to grow.

手話の顔 日本映像人類学 写真展 (Sign Language Faces: A Visual Anthropology of Japan Photo Exhibition)

VAOJ is holding a photo exhibition at the NPO Deaf Support Osaka Gallery starting today, February 7, for at least a month. Here is the abstract:

Sign language entails the use of the entire body. Facial expression as a non-manual sign (NMS) not only conveys meaning, it also plays a crucial role in the grammar of sign language. This photo exhibition illustrates the natural and grammatical facial expressions of members of Atolier Sign Language Circle in Hirakata-shi, Osaka. Atolier teaches and advocates the use of Japanese Sign Language as the first language of deaf people in Japan. Correct use of facial expression is an important and perhaps the most complicated component of sign language study.

Click to enlarge the image below and see the abstract in Japanese, along with a map to Deaf Support Osaka.

I am especially excited about this exhibition as it brings together my interests in deafness, sign language and visual representation. Please note that the gallery is closed on Sundays, Mondays and national holidays. Come and check out the exhibition! Yoroshiku!

Link to NPO Deaf Support Osaka (in Japanese):
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~deafnet/

VAOJ Student Photo Exhibition

 
My student, Cristina Grigore, is holding a photo exhibition on campus beginning today in the Student Lounge in Building 2. The theme is portraits of university judo and kempo karate club members. She has been working on this project for the entire semester and despite many challenges has come up with many great photos. This is another first for the VAOJ class - I hope more students will be inspired to do exhibitions in the future. Please check it out.

You can see more of Cristina's work on her visual anthropology blog:
http://nihonjinschmetterling.blogspot.com/

"See the light: Kozo Miyoshi captures peaceful, glowing moments from modern life"

Photo borrowed from http://www.8x10.jp/series/Shiogama.html

From today's Daily Yomiuri Online:

"They say a chick considers the first thing it sees to be its mother. In my case, that 'first thing' was black-and-white pictures. That was my indoctrination into the world of photography," says Kozo Miyoshi, who has for more than three decades been capturing monochromatic images of subjects he considers to be equals.

"I've always got a theme I'm working with, but it can be hard to find things that fit the brief. So, I have to travel if I want to meet them. Whether it is to the United States, throughout Japan or even just within Tokyo, I find my subjects when I'm on the move," Miyoshi says at Photo Gallery International, where many new prints of photos he took from 1978 to 1983 are on show until Dec. 22.

The exhibition--Kozo Miyoshi "See Saw"--features about 20 of his works, the majority of which are being shown for the first time to go with his latest book of photographs, Origin, is being published.
The event coincides with Kozo Miyoshi Photographs, another exhibition of photos from the same period that ended its run at Harajuku's Vacant gallery last week. "Both events are to showcase work I shot before I switched to an 8x10 camera. That period really marked my birth as a photographer," says Miyoshi, who held his first solo exhibition in 1979, just over seven years after he began taking pictures.
Miyoshi lived in San Francisco in 1972, and again in 1979-1982. He spent 1991-97 in Arizona, first as a researcher on a government program at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, and then working on his own.

...

"I see no difference between humans and inanimate objects. I snap the shutter only because I find them to be interesting subjects," Miyoshi says.

The photographer also says he sees his photographs as no more than objects; he prefers not to discuss spiritual or abstract notions when talking about his work. "Photographs are things," he says. "I face my subjects on equal terms and the lens helps make it clearer."

... 

"I do everything from shooting to printing myself, and can do it almost perfectly, so I only need to take a single shot at each location. That stops me from taking too many pictures," he says with a wry smile. "I really feel this camera has brought me closer to my subjects."

"Of course, my advice for young people learning to take good photographs is to take and print a lot of pictures every day," says Miyoshi. The photographer remembers sleeping with his camera out of "eagerness to take pictures, even in my dreams."

"Sense and talent is something you develop. In other words, sense is something you get after learning to take pictures."

...

Says Miyoshi: "A photograph cannot capture the air, wind, smells or the atmosphere of a group of people gathered around a tree. You have to be there to feel them. However, taking a photograph of the tree from a completely different view--i.e. in black-and-white--allows me to face the tree as an equal."

"Kozo Miyoshi 'See Saw,'" until Dec. 22, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. (to 6 p.m. on Saturdays) at Photo Gallery International near Tamachi station in Tokyo. Only people attending the gallery talk (2,000 yen) can visit after 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 4. Closed on Sundays and national holidays. Admission is free. For more information, visit www.pgi.ac.

Read the whole story:
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/arts/T101118003440.htm

For more on Miyoshi:

Kozo Miyoshi ''SEE SAW'' at Photo Gallery International:
http://www.pgi.ac/content/view/279/1/lang,en/ 

Kozo MIYOSHI at Photo Gallery International:
http://www.pgi.ac/content/view/123/66/lang,en/

Kozo Miyoshi – from Shiogama Urato series at Japan Exposures:
http://www.japanexposures.com/2009/03/20/kozo-miyoshi-from-shiogama-urato-series/

Shiogama Urato at www.8x10.jp:
http://www.8x10.jp/series/Shiogama.html

"Old photos reveal tale of Japan and Jews of WWII"

From today's Japan Today:

...


The photos were found in an old diary owned by Osako, who was a young employee of the Japan Tourist Bureau at the time, and died in 2003. Akira Kitade, who worked under Osako and is researching a book about him, has contacted Israeli officials for help and visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.
 
The museum said he gave it about 30 photographs that he is trying to identify, and received a list of over 2,000 Jews who received travel papers that enabled them to reach Japan. 

...
 
The photos shed further light on the story of Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat stationed in Lithuania who granted transit visas to several thousand Jews in the early days of the war. In doing so, he defied strict stipulations from Tokyo that such recipients have proper funds and a clear final destination after Japan.

...
 
Dubbed the “Japanese Schindler,” Sugihara was honored in 1985 by Yad Vashem as one of the Righteous Among the Nations, a high honor reserved for non-Jews who saved Jews at their own personal risk from the Holocaust, Hitler’s destruction of 6 million Jews.
 
A short movie about him, “Visas and Virtue,” won an Academy Award in 1997. Museums at his home town and in Lithuania are dedicated to his memory.

Read the whole story:
http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/old-photos-reveal-tale-of-japan-and-jews-of-wwii

See an online exhibition, "Flight and Rescue," at United States Holocaust Museum webpage:
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/flight_rescue/

"Diplomats reveal Japan 'old and new' through lens" /// Visual Anthropology Students Reveal Japanese Culture Through Excellent Portraits

From this morning's Japan Today:

An annual exhibition featuring photographs taken by Japan-based foreign diplomats opens in Tokyo on Oct 15, showcasing a country that is traditional, modern, beautiful and curious, from the viewfinders of keen international observers.

About 90 works submitted by 66 diplomats and family members from 40 countries will be on display at the 13th week-long exhibition, titled, "Japan ‘Old and New’ through Diplomats’ Eyes," with the special theme of "takumi" (craftsmanship).

The Grand Prize, chosen by the show’s eight-member committee, went to Bengt Westerblad, a Swedish-born artist and husband of a diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, whose photo captured a bamboo-made bud vase on a black background. In the picture, what looks like a test tube protrudes from a dark bamboo-woven ball, with a green leaf inserted into it.

Read the whole story: http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/diplomats-reveal-japan-old-and-new-through-lens
 
For more information about the exhibition: http://diplomatseyes.com/

UPDATE (10/15/10): The Yomiuri Online ran a piece about the exhibition today: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/arts/T101014002499.htm

Fall 2010 Student Visual Anthropology Photo Journal Blogs

This task for students in last week's blog was to take portraits of Japanese people (and for Japanese students to take portraits of foreigners in Japan). While none of the students are the husband of a diplomat, there are many artists and keen international observers. Many have provided some really excellent portraits in their blogs. It is obvious that students have been working on their photographic skills and pondering cultural representation. In addition to introducing a particular Japanese person through portraits and text, students wrote about the experience of photographing and representing another person. While no single post or portrait can serve to illustrate all people in Japan, when one examines all of the individuals that students chose as their subjects, one can see both cultural patterns and cultural diversity. Many students tackled issues of identity and belonging. Lots of good stuff here. Please check out the student blogs (from last week and every week) and add to the discourse with your comments.