Koji Takazawa - Zenkyoto Graffiti - 1984

Zenkyoto Graffiti

Koji Takazawa
Shinsensha/1984/japanese/258*193*13

Zenkyoto Graffiti, by freelance journalist Kôji Takazawa (1947-). After experiencing the Zenkyoto movement, Kôji Takazawa worked as a reporter and editor before becoming a freelance journalist. In 1999, he won the Kodansha Non-Fiction Prize for Fate. This book is a comprehensive compilation of photographs and text on the Zenkyoto movement in the late 1960s. The Zenkyoto movement was ‘a movement fought mainly by sectarian and radical students who questioned the nature of universities and academia’ (from the text), and developed into the University of Tokyo and Nihon University disputes, as well as the Haneda, Sasebo and Sanrizuka struggles that took place outside the university. The book contains a wealth of peripheral information, such as the songs favoured by the students, descriptions of the helmets of each sect, and book reviews, while keeping these trends in check. The book also contains a number of powerful photographs of the struggle sites that convey the realism of the struggle. Photographs are provided by news photographer Rio Mitome, with credits and more.