Kazuo Kitai - Shinano-Yugyo - 1987

Shinano-Yugyo

Kazuo Kitai
Gyosei/1987/Japanese/265*300*23

“Shinano Yugyo,” a photo book by Japanese photographer Kazuo Kitai. Kitai, the first recipient of the Kimura Ihei Photography Award (“To the Village”) and one of Japan’s leading documentary photographers. From works depicting “resistance” and “struggles”—such as those representing the postwar 1960s and the Sanrizuka protests—to the “Countryside” series from the 1970s onward, which captured Japan’s fading rural landscapes, and further to works on urban life and China, Kitai found the significance of photography in documenting the so-called “world of everyday life.” He has left behind numerous works that are intimate, somewhat nostalgic, and profoundly deep. His work was so compelling that even Takuma Nakahira remarked, “Whatever Kazuo Kitai photographs becomes ‘the countryside.’” This book is a collection published in 1987; as the title suggests, it consists of images taken in Shinshu. For a photographer who primarily worked in black and white, this is a rare and exceptional color series. Within these seemingly casual landscapes and still lifes lie meticulously calculated color schemes and compositions, as well as evocative narratives—as detailed in the comprehensive photographic commentary at the end of the book. It is a volume that captivates readers with the photographer’s profound thoughtfulness and multifaceted perspective.