Last night in Jimbocho I picked up the December 1978 special issue of Asahi Camera, a volume featuring the relatively unknown photographs by the Taisho era popular illustrator Takehisa Yumeji. I’ve been a fan of Yumeji since the first time I came across one of his pictures and end up visiting his memorial museum in Nezu at least twice a year. A while ago at a Book Off in Suidobashi I found an odd little book of his photos of women which was part of a larger series of photobooks (Tombo, something). Yumeiji’s paintings, late teens/early 1920s graphic design, and overall darkly tragic and romantic artist-life has been the subject of seemingly uncountable books and magazines. And postcards. And scarves. Pins. Book covers. Bookmarks. Stationary. Wall hangings. etc. But as far as I know there is no properly printed duo-toned photobook collecting all of his photos of his pale sad-eyed and distant women in retro kimonos. If there was I doubt there’s a price I wouldn’t pay to own it.
In the meantime the magazine will have to suffice. Sure, the off-camera gazes are attractive but what I really get excited over is Yumeiji’s framing- no doubt helped by the “accuracy” of his Kodak Pocket Bantam cameras. These are perfect pictures in their own way on their own terms.
It’s not all retro kimonos and pre-war sentimentalism! Sometimes it is that and pictures taken on the street:
The Shinjuku Nikon Salon a great show up through the 20th of June: The Beach by Reiichi Murakami.
Mr. Murakami has been photographing on the beaches of Shonan, Enoshima, and Miura for the past 10 years with his medium format camera, asking the people he meets to allow him to take their picture. Hardly an overbearing type of photographer, he simply asks his subjects to take up whatever pose they wish. The resulting images are wonderful examples of successful collaborations between the photographer and subject.
He doesn’t have a website so with his permission I took some photos to share here:
wow.
Mr. Murakami shot most of the images with this Fuji GA645Wi and Fuji Presto 400. The man with the sword seen in the photo above is on the cover of his self-published book of photographs taken at Yasukuni Shrine. He approached Yasukuni with a similar non-judgemental sense of respect for people found on beaches. I find this admirable since it can be tough to do with locations and people with such established political atmospheres.
Yumeji Takehisa has long been an artist I’ve admired and some of his photographs are as ensorcelling as any of his paintings. Charming and shared subject matter helps, no doubt. If I was allowed this fantasy, Tokyo in the Taisho period (pre-earthquake) would be my time and place of choice. The Yumeji Takehisa museum is near Nezu sation and I visit it at least 3 times a year. These are scans from postage stamp sized pictures from a book on his work and the Modern Tokyo era. A slightly better quality book has been published (a future blog post) but for now no real collection of his photography has been published.
