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Hiroh Kikai

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File:TokyoPortraits3.jpeg
Kikai interviewed during the press preview of his exhibition “Tokyo Portraits” at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 12 August 2011

Hiroh Kikai (鬼海 弘雄 Kikai Hiroo[n 1]?, born 18 March 1945) is a Japanese photographer best known within Japan for four series of monochrome photographs: scenes of buildings in and close to Tokyo, portraits of people in the Asakusa area of Tokyo, and rural and town life in India and Turkey. He has pursued each of these for over two decades, and each has led to one or more book-length collections.

Although previously a respected name in Japanese photography,[1] Kikai was not widely known until 2003, when the first edition of his book Persona, a collection of Asakusa portraits, won both the Domon Ken Award and Annual Award of the PSJ.[2] In 2009, the ICP and Steidl copublished Asakusa Portraits for an international market.

Early years

Kikai was born in the village of Daigo (now part of Sagae, Yamagata Prefecture) on 18 March 1945 as the seventh and last child (and fifth son) of the family.[3] He had a happy childhood, from the age of 11 or so preferring to play by himself in the nature that surrounded the village.[4] He graduated from high school in 1963 and worked in Yamagata for a year, and then went to Hosei University in Tokyo to study philosophy. As a student he was keen on the cinema — he particularly enjoyed the films of Andrzej Wajda, who would later contribute essays to some of his books, and Satyajit Ray — and has said that he would have worked in film production if it did not require writing, a task he has never enjoyed, and money, which he lacked.[5]

Immediately after his graduation in 1968,[6] Kikai worked for two years as a truck driver and for two in a shipyard.[7] Meanwhile, he stayed in touch with his philosophy professor from his university days, Sadayoshi Fukuda, whose interests extended to writing a regular column for the magazine Camera Mainichi; he introduced Kikai to its editor, Shōji Yamagishi, who showed him photographs by Diane Arbus that made a great impact on Kikai.[8] Kikai started to take photographs in 1969. At that time (when somebody fresh out of university could expect to earn ¥40,000 per month), a Hasselblad SLR camera normally cost ¥600,000; Kikai heard of an opportunity to buy one for ¥320,000 and mentioned this to Fukuda, who immediately lent him the money, with no interest, and no date or pressure for repayment. (The loan was eventually repaid.) This Hasselblad 500CM, with its 80mm lens, is what Kikai has used for his portraits ever since.[9]

Career

File:Kikai persona1.jpg
Persona, the 2003 collection of Asakusa portraits that won wide recognition in Japan for Kikai’s work

Kikai thought that work on a boat might be photogenic, but, having no experience, could not get a job on one. He was eventually accepted on a boat fishing for tuna when he displayed the scar from an unneeded appendectomy as evidence of one risk fewer that his presence might force the boat into port.[10] He worked on the boat in the Pacific from 6 April until 9 November 1972, with a stop in Manzanillo (Mexico) for provisions. It was during this time that he took his first photographs to be published, in the May 1973 issue of Camera Mainichi.[11] In 1973 he won a prize for his submission to the 14th exhibition of the Japan Advertising Photographers’ Association.[12] But Kikai decided that in order to be a photographer he needed darkroom skills, and he returned to Tokyo to work at Doi Technical Photo (1973–76).[13] He became a freelance photographer in 1984, a year after his first solo exhibition and the same year as his second.

Living close to Asakusa (Tokyo), Kikai often went there on his days off, taking photographs of visitors. He stepped up his visits in 1985; a number of collections of his portraits taken there have been published.

Kikai’s other long-term photographic projects are of working and residential neighborhoods in and near Tokyo, and of people and scenes in India and Turkey. All these are black and white. However, his occasional diversions have included color photographs of the Gotō Islands and even of nudes.[14]

Unusually in Japan, where photographers tend to join or form groups, Kikai has never been in any group, preferring to work by himself.[15] When not setting out to take photographs, Kikai does not carry a camera with him. He leaves photographing his own family to his wife Noriko, and it is she who has the camera if they go on a trip together.[16]

In the early part of his career, Kikai often had to earn money in other ways: after three years’ work in the darkroom, he returned to manual labor.[17]

Kikai taught for some time at Musashino Art University, but he was disappointed by the students’ lack of sustained effort and therefore quit.[18]

Asakusa portraits

File:Kikai-outati.jpg
Ōtachi no shōzō / Ecce Homo, Kikai’s first collection of Asakusa portraits (1987), and his first book.

Kikai had started his Asakusa series of square, monochrome portraits as early as 1973, but after this there was a hiatus until 1985, when he realized that an ideal backdrop would be the plain red walls of Sensō-ji. At that time, the great majority of his Asakusa portraits adopted further constraints: the single subject stands directly in front of the camera (originally a Minolta Autocord TLR, later the Hasselblad), looking directly at it, and is shown from around the knees upwards.[19] Kikai may wait at the temple for four or five hours, hoping to see somebody he wants to photograph, and three or four days may pass without a single photograph; but he may photograph three people in a single day, and he has photographed over six hundred people in this way.[20] He believes that to have a plain backdrop and a direct confrontation with the subject allows the viewer to see the subject as a whole, and as somebody on whom time is marked, without any distracting or limiting specificity.[21]

Though Kikai started to photograph in Asakusa simply because it was near where he then lived, he has continued because of the nature of the place and its visitors. Once a bustling and fashionable area, Asakusa long ago lost this status. If it were as popular and crowded as it was before the war, Kikai says, he would go somewhere else.[22]

Published in 1987, Ōtachi no shōzō / Ecce Homo was the first collection of these portraits. It is a large-format book with portraits made in Asakusa in 1985–86. Kikai won the 1988 Newcomer’s Award of the Photographic Society of Japan (PSJ) for this book and the third Ina Nobuo Award for the accompanying exhibition.[23]

In 1995, a number of portraits from the series were shown together with the works of eleven other photographers in “Tokyo/City of Photos”, one of a pair of opening exhibitions for the purpose-made building of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.[24]

Ya-Chimata, published a year later, has a greater number of portraits printed more cheaply on smaller pages.

Persona (2003) is a further collection of portraits made in Asakusa. A few are from Kikai’s earliest work, but most postdate anything in the earlier books. Several of the subjects appear twice or more often, so the reader sees the effect of time. The book format is unusually large for a photograph collection in Japan, and the plates were printed via quadtone.[25] The book won the 23rd Domon Ken Award and 2004 Annual Award of the PSJ.[2] A smaller-format edition with additional photographs followed two years later.

Asakusa Portraits (2008) is a large collection edited by the International Center of Photography (New York), published in conjunction with the ICP’s exhibition of recent Japanese photography and art “Heavy Light”. Kikai’s contribution to this exhibition was well received,[26] and Asakusa Portraits won praise for its photography and also (from Paul Smith) for the vernacular fashion of those photographed.[27]

Portraits of spaces

File:Kikai-meiro.jpg
Tōkyō meiro / Tokyo Labyrinth, a 1999 collection of “portraits of spaces”.

Kikai has said that people and scenery are two sides of the same coin.[28] When tired of waiting (or photographing) in Asakusa, he walks as far as 20 km looking for urban scenes of interest where he can make “portraits of spaces”.[29] A day’s walk might take two or three hours for less than a single roll of 120 film.[30] He generally photographs between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., and avoids photographing when people are outside as their presence would transform the photographs into mere snapshots, easily understood; even without people, they are the images or reflections of life.[31] Kikai may find a scene that he wants to photograph and then wait there and only photograph it when something unexpected occurs in the frame. After development, he does not bother with contact prints, instead judging a photograph by the negative alone.[32]

Samples from this series have appeared in various magazines from at least as early as 1976.[33] Each photograph is simply captioned with the approximate address (in Japanese script) and year.

Tōkyō meiro / Tokyo Labyrinth (1999) presents portraits of unpeopled spaces in Tokyo (and occasionally the adjacent town of Kawasaki). There are individual shopfronts, rows of shops and residential streets. Most of the buildings are unpretentious. Like the Asakusa series, these portraits are monochrome and square, taken via a standard lens on 120 film.[34]

Tōkyō mutan / Labyrinthos (2007) — based on an essay/photograph series that ran in the monthly Sōshi (草思) from March 2004 to July 2005 and then in the web series “Tokyo Polka”[35] — presents more of the same. Between a single nude in a shopfront display from 1978 and a very young boy photographed in December 2006 (the latter appearing to share the Sensō-ji backdrop of Persona), are square monochrome views of Tokyo and Kawasaki, compositions that seem casual and rather disorderly, mostly of unpeopled scenes showing signs of intensive and recent use. The book also has Kikai’s essays from “Tokyo Polka”, essays that dwell on the inhabitants of Tokyo as observed during walks or on the train.

India

File:Kikai-india.jpg
India (1992), the largest of Kikai’s collections of his Indian work.

Kikai has said that going to India feels like a return to the Yamagata of his youth, and a release from life in Tokyo.[36] His photography there is much less planned or formal than his portraits of people or places in Tokyo: after an early start with color 120 film, he uses black and white 35mm film in India — and has laughingly said that he would use 35mm in Tokyo if the city were more interesting and didn’t make him feel unhappy.[37]

India, a large-format book published in 1992, presents photographs taken in India (and to a much lesser extent Bangladesh) over a period totalling rather more than a year and ranging from 1982 to 1990. It won high praise from the critic Kazuo Nishii, who commented that the India of Kikai’s work seems perpetually overcast, and that in their ambiguity his photographs seem to benefit from the work done in the Asakusa portrait series.[38] The book won Kikai the 1993 Society of Photography Award.[39]

Shiawase / Shanti (2001) is a collection of photographs that concentrates on children, most of which were taken in Allahabad, Benares, Calcutta, Puri and Delhi in 2000.[40] It won the Grand Prix of the second Photo City Sagamihara Festival.[41]

Turkey

Wanting to explore somewhere that (in contrast to India) was cold, as well as a Muslim land where Asian and European cultures meet, in 1994 Kikai made the first of six visits to Turkey, where he has stayed for a total of nine months.[42] His monochrome photographs of Turkey appeared in the magazine Asahi Camera,[43] and his colour photographs on its website,[44] before the publication in January 2011 of his large book Anatolia, a compilation of his monochrome work.

Photography elsewhere

Kikai was one of thirteen Japanese photographers invited by EU–Japan Fest to photograph the twenty-six nations of the European Union; he spent twenty-one days in Malta in September 2005 and a short period in Portugal in October 2004, travelling widely in both countries.[45] In color, these photographs are a departure from his earlier work. Most are more or less candid photographs of people. A collection was published as the eighth in a series of fourteen volumes, In-between.

Series of color photographs from short visits to Cuba (2007) and Taiwan (2013) have appeared in Asahi Camera.[46]

Writing

Kikai's essays have appeared in periodicals and within some of his own photobooks. They have also been collected in three books, in which they are illustrated by reproductions of relevant photographs.

Indo ya Gassan (“India and Gassan”, 1999) is a collection about and photographs of India. Gassan is a mountain in central Yamagata close to where Kikai was brought up; Kikai muses on India and compares it with the Yamagata of his youth.

Me to kaze no kioku (“Memories of the eye and the wind”, 2012) collects essays published in Yamagata Shinbun (山形新聞) since 2006; Dare omo sukoshi suki ni naru hi: Memekuri bōbiroku (“Days when you come to like anyone a little: An image-turning aide-memoire”, 2015) collects essays published in Bungakukai (文學界) since 2011.

Exhibitions

Supplementary English titles in parentheses are nonce translations for this article; those outside parentheses and in quotation marks were used at the time.

  • [A]: Asakusa portraits
  • [I]: India
  • [S]: Portraits of spaces
  • [T]: Turkey

Selected solo exhibitions

File:TokyoPortraits1.jpeg
Entrance to the exhibition “Tokyo Portraits” at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 12 August 2011
  • “Nagi: Machinaka no kōkei” (凪：町中の光景, Calm: Town scenes). [S] Konishiroku Photo Gallery (Shinjuku, Tokyo), August–September 1983.[47]
  • “Indo kikō” (インド紀行, India travelogue). [I] Doi Photo Plaza Shibuya (Shibuya, Tokyo), August 1984; Art Plaza (Fukuoka), August 1984; Gallery Antomeru (Sendai), September 1984; Yamagata, 1984.[48]　
  • “Ōtachi no shōzō (Sensōji keidai)” (王たちの肖像(浅草寺境内), Portraits of kings [in the grounds of Sensō-ji]). [A] Ginza Nikon Salon (Ginza, Tokyo), September 1988.[49]　
  • “Dai-13 Ina Nobuo shō jushō sakuhinten: Kikai Hiroo ‘Ōtachi no shōzō (Sensōji keidai)’” (第13伊奈信男賞受賞作品展・鬼海弘雄「王たちの肖像(浅草寺境内)」, Exhibition of works winning the 13th Ina Nobuo Award: Hiroh Kikai, Portraits of kings [in the grounds of Sensō-ji]). [A] Ginza Nikon Salon (Ginza, Tokyo); Osaka; Kyoto; etc., 1988–89.[50]
  • The Hitachi Collection of Contemporary Japanese Photography, Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona. 1989.[51]　
  • “Dai-13-kai Ina Nobuo shō jushō sakuhinten: Kikai Hiroo ‘Kanshō: Machi no katachi’” (第13回伊奈信男賞受賞作品展・鬼海弘雄「観照：町のかたち」, Exhibition of works winning the 13th Ina Nobuo Award: Hiroh Kikai, Meditation: Town shapes). [S] Osaka Nikon Salon, February 1990; Ginza Nikon Salon (Ginza, Tokyo), March 1990; Kyoto; etc., 1990.[52]　
  • “Ecce Homo”. [A] Robert Koch Gallery (San Francisco), 1993.[53]　
  • “Indo kikō” (インド紀行, India travelogue). [I] Shōmeidō Gallery (Kodaira), 1998.[54]
  • “Persona (1)”. [A] Centrum Sztuki i Techniki Japońskiej “Manggha” (Kraków), 1999.[51]
  • “Shashin to insatsu hyōgen” (写真と印刷表現, Photographs and printing expression). [S] Mitsumura Art Plaza (Ōsaki, Tokyo), February–March 2000.[55]
  • “Persona (2)”. [A] Centrum Sztuki i Techniki Japońskiej “Manggha” (Kraków), November–December 2002.[56]
  • “Persona”. [A] The Third Gallery Aya (Osaka), October 2003.[57]
  • “Persona”. [A] Domon Ken Photography Museum (Sakata), September–November 2004.[58]　
  • “Persona”. [A] Ginza Nikon Salon (Tokyo); Osaka, 2004.[59]　
  • “Persona”. [A] Galeria Fotografii PF, Centrum Kultury “Zamek” (Poznań), February–March 2005.[60]
  • “Persona”. [A] Shōmeidō Gallery (Kodaira) January 2005.[41]
  • “Perusona” (ぺるそな). [A] Ginza Nikon Salon (Ginza, Tokyo), February–March 2006; Osaka Nikon Salon (Osaka), April 2006.[61]
  • “Tōkyō mutan” (東京夢譚, Tokyo dreams). [S] Ginza Nikon Salon (Ginza, Tokyo), September 2007; Osaka Nikon Salon (Osaka), October 2007.[62]
  • “Tokyo Labyrinth”. [S] Yancey Richardson Gallery (New York City), September–October 2008.[63]
  • “Jinsei gekijō” (人生劇場, Human theatre). [A] Gallery Raku, Kyoto University of Art and Design, Kyoto, March 2009.[51]
  • “Persona”. [A] Yancey Richardson Gallery (New York City), May–July 2009.[64]
  • “Asakusai portrék”. [A] Liget Gallery (Budapest), November–December 2010.[65][66]
  • “Anatoria e no purosesu” (アナトリアへのプロセス). [T] Aoyama Book Center (Omotesandō, Tokyo), January 2011.[67]
  • “Tōkyō pōtoreito” (東京ポートレイト) / “Tokyo portraits”. [A, S] Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (Ebisu, Tokyo), August–October 2011.[68]
  • “Anatoria” (アナトリア). [T] M2 (Shinjuku, Tokyo), August 2011.[69]
  • “Persona”. [A, S, I, T] Yamagata Museum of Art (Yamagata), December 2011 – January 2012.[70]
  • “Tokyo Labyrinth”. [S] Zen Foto Gallery (Roppongi, Tokyo), May 2013.[71]
  • “Persona” / “Perusona” (ペルソナ). [A] 14th Documentary Photo Festival Miyazaki, Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum, August–September 2013.[72][73]
  • “Asakusa Portraits (1973–2008) et India (1982–2008)”. [A, I] In between Gallery (Paris), November 2013.[74][75][76]
  • “India 1982–2011”. [I] Canon Gallery S (Shinagawa, Tokyo), May–June 2014.[77][78]
  • “Retratos de Asakusa”. [A] Tabacalera, Promoción del Arte (Madrid), September–November 2014.[79][80][81][82][83][84]
  • “India 1982–2011”. [I] The Museum of Art, Ehime (Matsuyama, Ehime), September–October 2014.[85]
  • “Tôkyô: voyage à Asakusa”. [A, S] Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale, Paris 6. 13–23 October 2015.[86]

Selected group exhibitions

Permanent collections

Publications

Books by Kikai

  • Ōtachi no shōzō: Sensō-ji keidai (王たちの肖像：浅草寺境内) / Ecce homo: Portraits of kings. Yokohama: Yatate, 1987. Photograph collection, with captions in Japanese and English, and an essay by Sadayoshi Fukuda. There are forty-one monochrome plates.
  • India. Tokyo: Misuzu Shobō, 1992. ISBN 4-622-04385-8. Photograph collection, with text (by Kikai and Munesuke Mita) in Japanese and English, and captions in English. There are 106 monochrome plates (all “landscape” format).
  • Ya-Chimata: Ōtachi no kairō (や・ちまた：王たちの回廊, Ya-Chimata: A gallery of kings). Tokyo: Misuzu Shobō, 1996. ISBN 4-622-04409-9. Photograph collection, with text (by Kikai and ten other writers) in Japanese only. There are 183 monochrome plates.
  • Tōkyō meiro (東京迷路) / Tokyo Labyrinth. Tokyo: Shōgakukan, 1999. ISBN 4-09-681241-2. Photograph collection, with text (by Andrzej Wajda, Genpei Akasegawa, and Suehiro Tanemura) in Japanese only. There are 108 monochrome plates.
  • Indo ya Gassan (印度や月山, India and Gassan). Tokyo: Hakusuisha, 1999. ISBN 4-560-04928-9. Thirty essays and forty-one photographs; text in Japanese only. The monochrome photographs are a mixture of “landscape” (across two pages) and “portrait” (on single pages).
  • Shiawase: Indo daichi no kodomo-tachi (しあわせ：インド大地の子どもたち) / Shanti: Children of India. Tokyo: Fukuinkan, 2001. ISBN 4-8340-1779-6. Photograph collection (all monochrome): thirteen “landscape” photographs across both pages; and ninety-four “portrait”. There are no captions, and the text is in Japanese only.
  • Persona. Tokyo: Sōshisha, 2003. ISBN 4-7942-1240-2. Photograph collection, with captions and text (by Andrzej Wajda, Suehiro Tanemura, and Kikai) in both Japanese and English. Between an additional plate at the front and back, there are twelve plates in a prefatory section (photographs taken well before the others), and in the body of the book twenty-eight plates four to a page and 138 plates on their own pages.
  • Perusona (ぺるそな) / Persona. Tokyo: Sōshisha, 2005. ISBN 4-7942-1450-2. Second, popular edition of the 2003 Persona in a smaller format. There are additional essays and photographs by Kikai; captions in both Japanese and English, other text in Japanese only. The twelve prefatory plates of the first edition and 191 plates of the main series are each presented on a separate page; there are also three more plates of photographs outside the series.
  • In-between 8: Kikai Hiroo Porutogaru, Maruta (In-between 8 鬼海弘雄 ポルトガル、マルタ) / In-between, 8: Hiroh Kikai, Portugal, Malta. Tokyo: EU–Japan Fest Japan Committee, 2005. ISBN 4-903152-07-3. Photograph collection; captions and text in both Japanese and English. There are twenty-eight colour photographs of Portugal and twenty-seven of Malta.
  • Tōkyō mutan (東京夢譚) / Labyrinthos. Tokyo: Sōshisha, 2007. ISBN 4-7942-1572-X. Collection of 118 monochrome photographs and essays; captions (for each, the approximate address and the year) and essays are in Japanese only.
  • Asakusa Portraits. New York: International Center of Photography; Göttingen: Steidl, 2008. ISBN 978-3-86521-601-4. Collection of monochrome photographs; captions and texts in English only. With an interview of Kikai by Noriko Fuku, essays by Kikai (translated from Perusona) and an essay on Asakusa by Hiromichi Hosoma (細馬宏通).
  • Anatoria (アナトリア) / Anatolia. Tokyo: Crevis, 2011. ISBN 978-4-904845-10-3. Collection of 140 monochrome photographs (all “landscape” format) of Turkey (not only Anatolia). With afterwords by Toshiyuki Horie and Kikai.
  • Tōkyō pōtoreito (東京ポートレイト) / Tokyo Portraits. Tokyo: Crevis, 2011. ISBN 978-4-904845-14-1. Exhibition catalogue of over 150 monochrome photographs of the “Asakusa portraits” and “portraits of spaces” series. Afterwords (by Shinji Ishii [いしいしんじ], Iwao Matsuyama [松山巖], and Nobuyuki Okabe [岡部信幸]) in Japanese only; captions in Japanese and English.
  • Me to kaze no kioku: Shashin o meguru esē (眼と風の記憶 写真をめぐるエセー). Tokyo: Iwanami, 2012. ISBN 978-4-00-024952-2. Essay collection.
  • Seken no hito (世間のひと). Chikuma Bunko. Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō, 2014. ISBN 978-4-480-43156-1. A bunkobon anthology of the Asakusa portrait series.
  • Dare o mo sukoshi suki ni naru hi: Memekuri bōbiroku (誰をも少し好きになる日 眼めくり忘備録). Tokyo: Bungei shunjū, 2015. ISBN 978-4-16-390215-9. Essay collection.

Other books with contributions by Kikai

  • Heavy Light: Recent Photography and Video from Japan. New York: International Center of Photography; Göttingen: Steidl, 2008. ISBN 978-3-86521-623-6. Captions and texts in English only.
  • Higashi-Nihon dai-jishin: Shashinka 17-nin no shiten (東日本大地震　写真家17人の視点, The great east Japan earthquake: The perspectives of 17 photographers). Special compilation by Asahi Camera. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 2011. ISBN 978-4-02-330996-8. A collection of photographs of the aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Text in Japanese only. Kikai contributes six pages: Sōma in early June, and three towns in Miyagi in late August.
  • In-between: 13-nin no shashinka 25-kakoku (In-between 13人の写真家 25ヶ国) / In-between: 13 photographers, 25 nations. Tokyo: EU–Japan Fest Japan Committee, 2005. ISBN 4-903152-13-8. Kikai is one of the thirteen in this supplementary collection of photographs in six themes (“Stones and walls”, “Words”, etc.); captions and text in both Japanese and English.
  • Literatura na świecie (Warsaw, ISSN 0324-8305) number 1–3, 2002. This special issue on Japanese literature, Japonia, is illustrated with photographs by Kikai, taken from Ya-Chimata and Tōkyō meiro / Tokyo Labyrinth. Text in Polish.
  • Miyako Harumi. Messēji (メッセージ) / The Message. Tokyo: Juritsusha, 2006. ISBN 4-901769-41-3. A book of which about half consists of quotations from interviews with the enka singer Harumi Miyako, and the other half of color photographs by Kikai. The photographs are not described or identified; a handful are of Miyako but most are of sea and provincial views. (In many, the scenes are recognizably of the Kumano area just west of Kumanogawa, Wakayama.) The text is all in Japanese.
  • Shashin toshi Tōkyō (写真都市Tokyo) / Tokyo/City of Photos. Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 1995. Catalogue of an exhibition held in 1995. Plates 113–29, admirably printed, are from Kikai’s series of Asakusa portraits. Captions and texts in both Japanese and English.
  • Ueda Makoto. Shūgō jūtaku monogatari (集合住宅物語, The story of collective housing). Tokyo: Misuzu, 2004. ISBN 4-622-07086-3. A book about collective housing in Japan from the Dōjunkai buildings onward, with 165 illustrative color photographs, all by Kikai. (Some monochrome photographs are older and are by other photographers.) The text, by Ueda, is in Japanese only. Content previously (1997–2001) published in Tokyojin.
  • Kikai Hirô and Jean-François Sabouret (other languages). Tôkyô: voyage à Asakusa. Atlantique, Éditions de l'Actualité Scientifique Poitou-Charentes, 2015. ISBN 978-2-911320-55-2. An introduction to the work of Kikai, in French and Japanese.

Notes

  1. ↑ When romanized, the name is usually spelled “Hiroh” but sometimes “Hiroo”; in French contexts, sometimes “Hirô”.

References

  1. ↑ Note Kikai's winning of the Ina Nobuo Award in 1988 (for details, see below); and the inclusion by 2000 of his works in the permanent collection of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography as implied by Sumiyo Mitsuhashi (三橋純予, Mitsuhashi Sumiyo), “Kikai Hiroo” (鬼海弘雄), Nihon shashinka jiten (日本写真家事典) / 328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers (Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000; ISBN 4-473-01750-8), p. 98 (despite its alternative title in English, the book is in Japanese only).
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Domon Ken Award: “Domon Ken–shō no rekishi to zen-jushō-shashinka” (土門拳賞の歴史と全受賞写真家, list of award-winners since 1982) (accessed 6 March 2006). PSJ award: “2004-nen Nihon Shashin Kyōkai-shō jushōsha”.
  3. ↑ Place of birth, siblings: Kōtarō Iizawa, “Kikai Hiroo” (鬼海弘雄), in Japanīzu fotogurafāzu: 14nin no shashinka-tachi no “ima” (ジャパニーズ・フォトグラファーズ：14人の写真家たちの「いま」) / Japanese photographers (Tokyo: Hakusuisha, 2005; ISBN 4-560-02705-6), p. 131. (Despite the book’s alternative English title, the text is all in Japanese. This article, which runs pp. 129–43, previously appeared in Asahi Camera, November 2004, pp. 248–52.) Date of birth: “Domon-Ken-shō jushō kinen Kikai Hiroo shashinten ‘Persona’” (土門拳賞受賞記念 鬼海弘雄写真展『Persona』, Hiroh Kikai photograph exhibition “Persona”, in celebration of the Domon Ken Award), Shōmeidō Gallery (松明堂ギャラリー), 2005 (accessed 5 March 2006).
  4. ↑ Noriyuki Kanda (神田憲行, Kanda Noriyuki), “Gendai no shōzō: Shashinka Kikai Hiroo: Jinsei no fuhen o toru to iu otoko” (現代の肖像：写真家鬼海弘雄：人生の普遍を撮るという男, A portrait of today: The photographer Hiroh Kikai: The man who photographs the universality of life), Aera, 25 April 2005. p. 61 (the article runs pp. 59–63).
  5. ↑ Film tastes: Iizawa, “Kikai Hiroo”, p. 132. Film as a career: Kanda, “Gendai no shōzō”, p. 63.
  6. ↑ Both Kikai’s book Perusona / Persona (first impression, 2005, n.p.) and his Tōkyō Mutan / Labyrinthos (first impression, 2007, n.p.) say 1978, presumably first a typo or mistake and then inherited misinformation. His other books India (n.p.) and Ya-Chimata (n.p.) have him graduating in 1969. His book In-between 8 says 1968. (For details see “Books by Kikai”.) Kikai says that 1968 is correct (conversation, 3 March 2006).
  7. ↑ Hideko Oiwake (追分日出子, Oiwake Hideko), “Kindaika ni norenakatta otoko: Kikai Hiroo” (近代化にのれなかった男 鬼海弘雄, A man who couldn’t get on board modernization: Hiroh Kikai), Shashin Jidai, November 1984, p. 141.
  8. ↑ Iizawa, “Kikai Hiroo”, pp. 132–33; Kanda, “Gendai no shōzō”, p. 62.
  9. ↑ Purchase and use of the Hasselblad: “Watashi kyō kinō ashita 24: Kikai Hiroo san” (わたし きょう きのう あした 24 鬼海弘雄さん, Me today yesterday tomorrow 24: Hiroh Kikai), Croissant no. 640, 10 July 2004, p. 98 (the article runs pp. 98–101).
  10. ↑ Kanda, “Gendai no shōzō”, p. 62.
  11. ↑ Iizawa, “Kikai Hiroo”, p. 133; Kikai, “Sen’in techō bangō: Misaki 16000” (船員手帳番号：三崎16000) / “Seamen’s Registered Number: Misaki 16000”, Camera Mainichi, May 1973, pp. 95–101 (the minimal text within the latter is in Japanese only, despite its secondary title in English).
  12. ↑ Mitsuhashi , “Kikai Hiroo”, p. 98.
  13. ↑ Iizawa, “Kikai Hiroo”, p. 134.
  14. ↑ Gotō islands: “Nihon o arukō (19): Kikai Hiroo to aruku (Nagasaki): Gotō rettō” (日本を歩こう[19]；鬼海弘雄と歩く【長崎】：五島列島, Walking around Japan [19]: Walking with Hiroh Kikai [Nagasaki]: The Gotō islands), Photo Contest, July 2006, pp. 4, 6, 8–16. Nudes: “Hareta hi ni” (晴れた日に) / “On clear day”, Asahi Camera, July 2005, pp. 47–52.
  15. ↑ Kanda, “Gendai no shōzō”, p. 61.
  16. ↑ Kanda, “Gendai no shōzō”, p. 63.
  17. ↑ Oiwake, “Kindaika ni norenakatta otoko”, p. 141. By his own account in 1980 he briefly worked at an Isuzu plant, in 1982 in a Subaru plant.Kikai, Ōtachi no shōzō / Ecce homo, n.p. (for details see “Books by Kikai”).
  18. ↑ Name of the university: “Domon-Ken-shō jushō kinen Kikai Hiroo shashinten ‘Persona’”; this says that he started there in 1994. Dissatisfaction: “Watashi kyō kinō ashita 24”, p. 101.
  19. ↑ Backdrop and constraints: Iizawa, “Kikai Hiroo”, pp. 134–35. Autocord and Hasselblad: Iizawa, “Kikai Hiroo”, p. 134.
  20. ↑ Time spent waiting, number photographed: “Watashi kyō kinō ashita 24”, p. 98. Days with no photos, three people in a day: “Watakushi no naka no ‘Persona’” (私の中の『ペルソナ』, My Persona), Tokyojin, November 2003, pp. 152–53 (Kikai in conversation with Midori Nakano and Taichi Yamada; article runs p. 148–54).
  21. ↑ “Watashi kyō kinō ashita 24”, p. 99; “Watakushi no naka no ‘Persona’”, p. 149.
  22. ↑ “Watakushi no naka no ‘Persona’”, p. 150.
  23. ↑ PSJ award: PSJ, “Kako no jushōsha ichiran” (過去の受賞者一覧, List of past PSJ award-winners) (accessed 6 March 2006); PSJ, “2004-nen Nihon Shashin Kyōkai-shō jushōsha” (2004年日本写真協会賞受賞者, PSJ prize-winners for 2004) (accessed 6 March 2006). Ina Nobuo Award: announcement of 13th Ina Nobuo award, 1988 (第13回(1988年)伊奈信男賞 鬼海弘雄写真展『王たちの肖像(浅草寺境内)』, 13th Ina Nobuo Award [1988], Hiroh Kikai, Ecce Homo), Nikon (accessed 5 March 2006.) Also see Ina Nobuo shō 20-nen: Nikon Saron ni miru gendai shashin no nenpu (伊奈信男賞20年：ニコンサロンにみる現代写真の年譜) / Ina Nobuo Award ’76–’95, Nikon Salon Books 23 (Tokyo: Nikon, 1996), with a few pages devoted to the works of each of the winners of the Ina Nobuo Award to date (Kikai is on pp. 96–101), and also lists of the exhibitions at the Ginza and Shinjuku Nikon Salons.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Tokyo/City of Photos, the published catalogue of the exhibition (for details see “Other works with contributions by Kikai”).
  25. ↑ Kanda, “Gendai no shōzō”, p. 60.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Favorable reviews of Kikai’s photographs in “Heavy Light”: Roberta Smith, “Japanese Culture, in Vivid Color”, New York Times, 13 June 2008 (accessed 17 September 2008, requires registration but no payment); Heesun Wee, “Summer’s photo finish with Atget, Evans, Kikai, Fusco”, Newyorkology, 22 August 2008 (accessed 17 September 2008); “Goings On About Town”, New Yorker, 30 June 2008 (accessed 17 September 2008).
  27. ↑ Photography: Jörg M. Colberg, “Review: Asakusa Portraits by Hiroh Kikai”, Conscientious, 10 September 2008; Jörg M. Colberg, “Best Photo Books 2008”, Conscientious, 16 December 2008 (both accessed 1 January 2011). Fashion: Paul Smith, “Kikai Style”, vogue.co.uk, 10 September 2008 (accessed 17 July 2009).
  28. ↑ “Watashi kyō kinō ashita 24”, p. 99.
  29. ↑ “Watashi kyō kinō ashita 24”, p. 98. “Portraits of spaces” (空間のポートレイト, Kūkan no pōtoreito): afterword to Tōkyō meiro / Tokyo Labyrinth (for details see “Books by Kikai”).
  30. ↑ Time, quantity: Noriyuki Kanda, “Kikai Hiroo no Tōkyō: Miru me, erabu me” (鬼海弘雄の東京：見る目、選ぶ目), The Tokyo of Hiroh Kikai: The seeing eye, the selecting eye), Asahi Camera, November 2006, pp. 232–33.
  31. ↑ Time: “Tōkyō meiro o megutte” (『東京迷路』をめぐって, About Tokyo Labyrinth), Tokyojin, February 2000, p. 110 (Kikai in conversation with Suehiro Tanemura and Iwao Matsuyama [松山巖]). Peopling, snapshots, image/reflection of life (seikatsu no kage, 生活の影): “Tōkyō meiro o megutte”, p. 109; Kanda, “Kikai Hiroo no Tōkyō”.
  32. ↑ Waiting for the unexpected, avoidance of contact prints: Kanda, “Kikai Hiroo no Tōkyō”.
  33. ↑ See for example “Nagi” (凪, Calm), Camera Mainichi, June 1976, pp. 119–25.
  34. ↑ Standard lens: afterword to Tōkyō meiro / Tokyo Labyrinth.
  35. ↑ Sōshi is produced by Sōshisha, the publisher of Labyrinthos. Some photographs within the book had also appeared elsewhere, e.g. issue 2 (October 2004) of Tamaya (たまや). “Tokyo Polka” was a series of essays, each illustrated with photographs (accessed 24 February 2006; as of 28 May 2007, the essays and photographs had been removed, leaving only a short description; earlier versions do not seem to be available via the Wayback Machine.) Continues in “Yurari-yurayura-ki”.
  36. ↑ “Tōkyō Meiro o megutte”, pp. 114, 115.
  37. ↑ Color photographs of India: Kikai, “Indo: Higan to shigan” (インド 彼岸と此岸, India: The world of the Buddha and our world), Camera Mainichi, November 1981, pp. 24–29. (Kikai mentions use of a Minolta Autocord and a Rolleiflex.) On Tokyo: “Tōkyō Meiro o megutte”, p. 115.
  38. ↑ Kazuo Nishii, “Kikai Hiroo (India)” (鬼海弘雄 『India』), in Shashinteki kioku (写真的記憶, Photographic memories) (Tokyo: Seikyūsha, 1997; ISBN 4-7872-7072-9), 173–77 (first appeared in an unspecified publication of Misuzu Shobō, November 1992).
  39. ↑ Society of Photography, Awards, 1 (1989) – 10 (1998) (accessed 4 April 2007).
  40. ↑ Afterword, Shiawase / Shanti (for details see “Books by Kikai”).
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 “Domon-Ken-shō jushō kinen Kikai Hiroo shashinten ‘Persona’”.
  42. ↑ “Hyakunengo nimo hibiku koe o totta tabi” (百年後にも響く声を撮った旅), Asahi Camera, November 2010, p.225.
  43. ↑ As installments of “Anatoria kikō” (アナトリア紀行) / “A Journey to Anatolia”, Asahi Camera, June 2001, pp. 55–61; January 2003, pp. 72–79; March 2006, pp. 68–75. Also, “Anatoria” (アナトリア) / “Anatolia, Turkey”, Asahi Camera, November 2010, pp. 37–46.
  44. ↑ “Anatoria kikō” (アナトリア紀行) / “Backroad to Anatolia” Part 1, Part 2, asahicamera.net (both accessed 26 March 2010). Requires Flash.
  45. ↑ Length of stay in Malta: Hiroh Kikai, In-between 8, n.p. (for details see “Books by Kikai”). Month and year: Kikai, “Porutogaru kikō” (ポルトガル紀行) / “My Portugal”, Nippon Camera, December 2005, p. 16.
  46. ↑ Kikai, “Habana no heijitsu” (ハバナの平日) / “Ordinary Days in Havana, Cuba, 2007”, Asahi Camera, October 2007, pp. 47–56. Kikai, “Taiwan e” (台湾へ), Asahi Camera, November 2013, pp. 29–36.
  47. ↑ “Shashinten purebyū” (写真展プレビュー) / “Photo Exhibition Guide”, Nippon Camera, September 1983, p.130. (Other lists of Kikai’s past exhibitions give the place as “Konica Photo Gallery” or “Konica Photo Plaza”; these are anachronistic.)
  48. ↑ Shibuya: “Shashinten gaido” (写真展ガイド, Photo exhibition guide), Asahi Camera, August 1984, p.13. Fukuoka, Sendai: “Shashinten gaido”, Asahi Camera, September 1984, pp. 14, 16. In Ōtachi no shōzō / Ecce homo (n.p.), Kikai lists the Fukuoka exhibition as more specifically in Hakata. “Antomeru” is a transliteration of アントメル. Yamagata: “Kikai Hiroo, Indo ya gassan shashinka” (鬼海弘雄 《印度や月山》写真家), Yamagata no yūmeijin (山形の有名人) 2005 (accessed 25 May 2008), not specifying the gallery.
  49. ↑ Ginza Nikon Salon: Ina Nobuo shō 20-nen, p.154; Kōtarō Iizawa, “Shashin no seitōteki na hyōgen ni deau” (写真の正統的な表現に出会う), Shashin no genzai: Kuronikuru 1983–1992 (写真の現在：クロニクル1983～1992) (Tokyo: Miraisha, 1993; ISBN 4-624-71061-4), pp.208–209 (essay first appeared in Photo Contest, November 1988).
  50. ↑ Ginza Nikon Salon: Ina Nobuo shō 20-nen, p.154. Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, etc.: “Kikai Hiroo, Indo ya gassan shashinka” (specifying the cities but not the galleries).
  51. ↑ 51.00 51.01 51.02 51.03 51.04 51.05 51.06 51.07 51.08 51.09 51.10 “Jinsei gekijō”, Kyoto University of Art and Design (accessed 20 January 2009).
  52. ↑ Ginza: Ina Nobuo shō 20-nen, p.154. Osaka and Ginza: “Shashinten gaido” (写真展ガイド), / “Gallery Guide”, Asahi Camera, March 1990, pp. 135, 132. Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, etc.: “Kikai Hiroo, Indo ya gassan shashinka” (specifying the cities but not the galleries).
  53. ↑ 53.0 53.1 Tokyo/City of Photos, n.p.
  54. ↑ “Kikai Hiroo, Indo ya gassan shashinka”.
  55. ↑ “Exhibition history”, Mitsumura Printing Company (accessed 25 May 2008).
  56. ↑ “Miesiąc Fotografii w Krakowie”, fotopolis.pl (accessed 25 May 2008); Wojciech Wilczyk, “Miesiąc Fotografii w Krakowie: Spóźniona relacja”, Fototapeta, 2002 (accessed 17 July 2009).
  57. ↑ “Persona”, The Third Gallery Aya (accessed 16 March 2009).
  58. ↑ “Shashinten gaido” (写真展ガイド), / “Gallery Guide”, Asahi Camera, October 2004, p.309.
  59. ↑ Kikai, In-between 8, n.p.; Tokyo/City of Photos, n.p.
  60. ↑ “Hiro Kikai w Galerii PF”; fotopolis.pl (accessed 9 March 2006); Marta Newelska, Marta. “O, ludzie!”, Japonica Creativa (accessed 9 March 2006).
  61. ↑ “Perusona” (Tokyo), “Perusona” (Osaka), Nikon (accessed 25 May 2008).
  62. ↑ “Tōkyō mutan” (Tokyo), “Tōkyō mutan” (Osaka), Nikon (accessed 25 May 2008).
  63. ↑ Yancey Richardson exhibition notice, re-title.com (accessed 2 December 2009).
  64. ↑ “Hiroh Kikai: Persona” (PDF file), yanceyrichardson.com (accessed 15 May 2009).
  65. ↑ Kürti Emese, “Kiállítás - Arcokból a világot - Hiroh Kikai: Asakusai portrék”, Magyar Narancs (accessed 30 November 2014).
  66. ↑ "A Liget Galéria kiállításai 2002-tõl = Exhibitions at the Liget Gallery till 2012", Liget Gallery (accessed 30 November 2014).
  67. ↑ “Anatoria e no purosesu”, Aoyama Book Center (accessed 14 January 2011).
  68. ↑ “Hiroh Kikai: Tokyo Portraits”, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (accessed 6 August 2011).
  69. ↑ “Anatoria”, M2 (accessed 22 August 2011).
  70. ↑ “Kikai Hiroo shashinten Persona” (鬼海弘雄写真展 Persona), Yamagata Museum of Art (accessed 10 December 2011).
  71. ↑ Exhibition notice (JPEG), Zen Foto Gallery (accessed 6 November 2013).
  72. ↑ Exhibition notice, Documentary Photo Festival Miyazaki, 27 August 2013 (accessed 15 September 2014).
  73. ↑ Exhibition notice, Mainichi Shinbun, 29 August 2013 (accessed 15 September 2014).
  74. ↑ Exhibition notice, In between Gallery (accessed 6 November 2013).
  75. ↑ Exhibition notice, L’Œil de la Photographie, 11 November 2013 (accessed 15 September 2014).
  76. ↑ Jean-Sébastien Stehli, "Hiroh Kikai, un maître japonais", Photo sensible, Le Figaro fr Madame, 10 November 2013 (accessed 2 September 2015).
  77. ↑ Exhibition notice, Canon (accessed 15 September 2014).
  78. ↑ Exhibition notice, Misuzu Shobō (accessed 15 September 2014).
  79. ↑ Exhibition notice, Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (accessed 15 September 2014).
  80. ↑ Exhibition notice, XTRart (accessed 15 September 2014).
  81. ↑ “Los retratos de Asakusa desde 1973 hasta hoy de Hiroh Kikai”, Xatakafoto, 20 September 2014. Accessed 22 September 2014.
  82. ↑ “#ArteTabacalera @PromociondeArte Presentación: Retratos de Asakusa. Hiroh Kikai”, InfoArte fotoBlog, 18 September 2014. Accessed 22 September 2014.
  83. ↑ “Retratos de Asakusa del Hiroh Kikai en Madrid”, Eikyô: Influencias japonesas, 21 September 2014. Accessed 22 September 2014.
  84. ↑ “Retratos de Asakusa”, hoyesarte.com, 18 September 2014. Accessed 25 September 2014.
  85. ↑ Exhibition schedule for September 2014 (PDF), The Museum of Art, Ehime (accessed 15 September 2014).
  86. ↑ “Exposition de photographies de Kikai Hirô: Tôkyô: voyage à Asakusa”, Espace Mendès-France.
  87. ↑ Tokyo/City of Photos, n.p.; Kikai, India, n.p. (for the latter book see “Books by Kikai”).
  88. ↑ “Shashin wa nani o katareru ka” (写真は何を語れるか) (Tokyo: Canon, 1997), 3.
  89. ↑ “Kikai Hiroo / Sekino Yoshiharu shashinten ‘Tōkyō meiro / Andesu Kuero-mura’” (鬼海弘雄・関野吉晴　写真展「東京迷路・アンデスケロ村」, Hiroh Kikai / Yoshiharu Sekino photograph exhibition “Tokyo labyrinth / Andes Qero”), Shōmeidō Gallery, 2007 (accessed 25 May 2008).
  90. ↑ “Heavy Light”, ICP, 2008 (accessed 5 June 2008).
  91. ↑ Search results, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. Accessed 11 March 2013.
  92. ↑ Emily S. Burke, “Photography”, Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2009; ISBN 1-58465-786-3), p.195. Here at Google Books
  93. ↑ Annual report for the year 2010–2011 (PDF), Amherst College, 2011, p.9. Accessed 16 September 2014.
  94. ↑ Catalogue entry, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Accessed 16 September 2014.

External links

  • Website accompanying the 2015 Paris exhibition “Tôkyô: voyage à Asakusa” (French)(Japanese)
  • “Hiroh Kikai”. Crevis (クレヴィス).
  • Fallis, Greg. “Hiroh Kikai”. Sunday Salon. Utata Tribal Photography. (English)
  • Feustel, Marc. “Hiroh Kikai talks about photography”. LensCulture. 2008. Interview, with 10 sample photographs. (English)
  • Feustel, Marc. “Hiroh Kikai: A man in the cosmos”. Eyecurious. 10 February 2010. Interview, with sample photographs. (English)
  • “Hiroh Kikai”. Studio Equis. Short biography with a set of images whose display requires Flash Player 8. (English)
  • “Hiroh Kikai”. Yancey Richardson Gallery (New York). Photographs from the “Persona” (“Asakusa Portraits”) series.
  • “Hiroh Kikai ‘Asakusai portréi’” = “Interview with Hiroh Kikai”. Liget Gallery. Translations of a long interview of Kikai by Noriko Fuku. (Hungarian)(English)
  • In-between 8 (publisher’s page): with two sample photographs. (English)
  • Kikai Hiroh. “Yurari-yurayura-ki” (ゆらりゆらゆら記). A series of essays, each illustrated with photographs. (Japanese)
  • “Kikai Hiroo”, Shashin shika dekinai koto (写真しかできないこと), The Photographer 2007. Fujifilm. Samples of Kikai's work. (Japanese)
  • Mirapaul, Evan. “Musings from a Trip to Japan (III) Kikai.” Fugitive Vision, 13 November 2007. Mirapaul comments on the Asakusa portrait series. (English)
  • Persona (publisher’s page for the second edition): with twenty-four sample photographs. (Japanese)
  • Shanti (publisher’s page): with two sample photographs. (Japanese)
  • Tokyo Labyrinth (publisher’s page): with three sample photographs. (Japanese)
  • Asakusa Portraits by Hiroh Kikai (PDF), Liget Galéria, Budapest. Lavishly illustrated proposal for an exhibition.
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