Ippei Itoh - History of Nude Photography in Japan - 1977

History of Nude Photography in Japan

Asahi Sonorama
Ippei Itoh/1977/190*265*20

This book, “History of Nude Photography in Japan,” is a collection of works by Ippei Ito, a pioneering manga critic and renowned photo critic. The book opens with the texts “The Beginning of Japanese Nude Photography” and “Nude Photography in the Early Days,” which trace the roots of nude photography in Japan. The exhibition introduces the evolution of nude photography, which had a strong amateur documentary element, into a “work of art” full of artistic beauty. Beginning with Kozo Nojima, the exhibition features photographers such as Katsuji Fukuda, Fujio Majitsugu, and Kira Sugiyama, all of whom have made the nude their representative works, as well as master photographer Ken Domon, and a distinguished lineup of photographers active since the 1950s, including Tatsuyuki Nakamura, Shotaro Akiyama, Shoji Otake, Takamasa Inamura, Mitsuro Honjo, Masaya Nakamura, and Takashi Kishima. Following them will be Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Eikoh Hosoe, Kishin Shinoyama, Yoshihiro Tachiki, Tetsuya Ichimura, and others who have pushed Japanese photography to the world stage with new methods and ways of thinking that are not bound by conventional concepts. Although the text is the main subject of the book, each photographer's biography and characteristics are summarized from the perspective of “nudity,” making this a book well worth reading.