(b Tokyo, 28 March 1915). Japanese photographer. He joined Oriental Photographic Industries in 1933 where he learnt photographic techniques. In 1939 he met the ethnologist Keizo Shibusawa and, strongly influenced by his positivistic documentary spirit, began to photograph the life, particularly the New Year customs, of the people of the mountain village Tanihama in Niigata prefecture. The photographs, which combine lyricism with documentation, were published as Yukiguni ('Snow country'; Tokyo, 1956). After the war he published works in the magazines Bungei shunju and Chuo koron and in 1960, under contract to the Magnum agency, he became active internationally. Representative work includes the photographs of the relationship between the natural features and life of Japanese people in Ura Nihon ('Back regions of Japan'; Tokyo, 1957) and Nihon retto ('The Japanese archipelago'; Tokyo, 1964) and the portrait collection Gakugeishoka ('Scholars and artists'; Tokyo, 1982).
See the Abbreviations for further details.
