Exhibitions of the work of photographer Yasuhiro Ishimoto (1921-2012) is being held at two Tokyo museums to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth next year. The displayed work of Ishimoto, who was particularly active during the postwar period, focuses on modernistic design elements, such as those seen at the Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto City.
The exhibition, titled the "Ishimoto Yasuhiro Centennial," is being simultaneously held at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum in Meguro Ward and the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery in Shinjuku Ward. The photos on display explore the beauty of the composition of his work and trace the history of the photographer who took a look at postwar society through the lens of his camera.
The exhibition, one of the largest of its kind in the nation, was a collaborative effort of not only the two Tokyo museums, but also the Museum of Art, Kochi, in Kochi City which is planning its own memorial exhibition for Ishimoto that will run from January to March next year.
Ishimoto was born in the United States to agricultural immigrant parents from Kochi Prefecture. He and his family returned to Japan when he was 3 and up until he graduated from high school, he lived with his family in the prefecture.
In 1939, Ishimoto moved back to the United States on his own to study modern agriculture. He turned his hand to photography in his mid-20s, learning the basics of photographic composition at the Chicago Institute of Design, which follows the style of the Bauhaus art school in Germany.
Between the two museums in Tokyo, the joint exhibition will feature 640 of his pieces from the 1940s to the 2000s.
"The city brought to life," the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum's exhibition that is scheduled to run through Nov. 23, has 166 items on display that highlight the latter half of his career. Most of the photos focus on the urban landscapes of cities such as Chicago and Tokyo.
Although Ishimoto is renowned for beautiful geometric plane compositions in the Bauhaus style, he also took a hard look at the state of society in his "Tokyo, Yamanote-Line 29" series in the 1980s.
On the other hand, "Tradition and Modernity" at the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery is set to run until Dec. 20 and focuses more on the early days of his career. In the 474 pieces of his work and related materials on display, Ishimoto observes how tradition can be captured from a modern perspective. Visitors are sure to be surprised at his various expression styles in works such as the series of the Katsura Imperial Villa photographed in 1953 and 1954, and large prints of the national treasure "Den-Shingonin-mandala," photographed at the Toji temple in Kyoto City in 1973.
Ishimoto continued taking photos of the work of Japanese architects including Kenzo Tange and Arata Isozaki. Hiroshi Naito, an architect who had been in communication with Ishimoto since the late 1980s, asked the photographer to take photos of the Makino Museum of Plants and People in Kochi City that he personally designed.
"Before taking the photos, [Ishimoto] would mentally visualize a photographic composition while paying close attention to details like the change of sunlight throughout the day and the location of the shoot," Naito said. "[He is] an extraordinary perfectionist."
Naito also stated that Ishimoto's individual artistic sense "was torn in two" in aesthetic and cultural terms.
"While [Ishimoto] felt affection toward human beings and 'genius loci' [the presiding god or spirit of a place], he also sought the beauty in abstractness of the Bauhaus style. As for the Katsura Imperial Villa, he not only caught the vertical and horizontal geometric elements, but also captured images of the garden's stepping stones upon which visitors walk," Naito said.
Naito also pointed out that the cultural traits of both Japan and the United States can be seen in the "Chicago, Snow and Car" piece from his "Chicago, Chicago" series.
"Automobiles are a symbol of the U.S. modernity and the thin layer of snow on the car [in the photo] has a Japanese atmosphere. I feel there is a conflict between Japan and the West in the frame," Naito said.
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