departmental bulletin paper

Departmental Bulletin Paper

Text

Osaka Human Sciences. 2024, 10, p. 57-90

Photographers Confronted with the Turbulence Around 1970 : Reflections on documents since the Meiji period through “A Century of Japanese Photography”

Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University

English

Text

2024-03

Postwar Japan reached an apotheosis of rapid economic growth around 1970, which led to numerous contradictions such as student movements, environmental pollution, and antisecurity treaty struggles. In the year 1968, which marked the 100th anniversary of the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese Government held large-scale celebrations of its accomplishments. In the same year, the Japan Professional Photographers Society (JPS) held a photo exhibition titled “A Century of Japanese Photography” that presented the history of Japanese photographic expression from the end of the Edo period to the country’s defeat in World War II. The main organizers of the exhibition were postwar photographers including Shōmei Tōmatsu, Koji Taki, and Masatoshi Naito, who emphasized the importance of the enormous number of anonymous images represented by the documents of the pioneering of Hokkaido in the early Meiji era. The organizers also raised questions about the responsibilities of the wartime photographers who pushed pro-war propaganda in World War II. Further, a review of prior research suggested that this exhibition was critical to the end of “Modern Photography” in Japan because it denied the use of photography as a means of self-expression. However, this interpretation has become detached from the organizers’ purpose at the time—Tōmatsu and others were attempting to learn lessons from their forerunners and express the impacts of Modern Japanese history. Thus, the purpose of this study is to describe what each of the photographers who were capturing turbulent times attempted to express through “A Century of Japanese Photography” based on our original methodology of “photography in practice” (shashin-jissen). In the late 1960s, Japan enjoyed a striking level of prosperity and the government applauded the Meiji period, which had carried the country to its position as the pre-eminent economic power in Asia. However, this historical perspective from above disregarded the innumerable casualties of the country’s past, which included repeated wars and severe suppressions. In addition, the Vietnam War reminded people that the Empire of Japan had colonized its neighboring countries until the end of the Fifteen Years’ War. Against this social background, the analysis of exhibition catalogues and other materials like newspapers and magazine articles published at the time reveals that the photographers were deeply moved by the brutal way in which common people were forced to live and die on the road to nationhood. Simultaneously, this raised a serious question regarding whether earlier photographers had earnestly captured this buried history. However, traditional photorealism, which was used to capture postwar social conditions, was no longer popular due to the achievement of a thriving domestic economy. Meanwhile, the government intensified its efforts to crack down on freedom of expression; the riot police suppressed protests and confiscated films such as in Sanriduka, Yasuda Auditorium, and Shinjuku. In conclusion, photographers around 1970 sought ways to document the ongoing movements and reflected on the absence of photographers’ autonomy before and during the war.

10.18910/94829

94829

Photographers Confronted with the Turbulence Around 1970 : Reflections on documents since the Meiji period through “A Century of Japanese Photography”

Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University

English

2024-03

Osaka Human Sciences

10

57

90

https://hdl.handle.net/11094/94829

10.18910/94829

https://doi.org/10.18910/94829