Ken Domon

was a celebrated Japanese photographer known for his work as a photojournalist and as a photographer of Buddhist temples and statuary.

Domon, who began his career in the 1930s contributing photo reportages to magazines that supported the increasingly militaristic Japanese state and its imperial policies, later criticized propaganda photography. His subsequent termination from the government agency he worked for spurred his career as a freelance photographer.

As photojournalists grappled with how to depict the new social reality of the post-WWII period, Domon forged the realistic photography movement (Riarizumu Shashin Undō). He embraced the idea of snapshot photography (sunappu), in which images could be captured with "absolute unstagedness". Domon documented the aftermath of the war, focusing on society and the lives of ordinary people. He received national acclaim for his portraits of children in exploitative labor conditions and Hiroshima bomb survivors (hibakusha).

Domon was forced to abandon sunappu photography after he suffered a debilitating stroke in 1958. His major project until the end of his career was photographing temples across Japan, a much-beloved subject that he had first begun to document in 1940. These images constituted the monumental series Pilgrimage to Ancient Temples (Koji Junrei), published in five volumes from 1963 to 1975.

Biography

Early life and career beginnings Domon was born to a working-class family in Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture. After his father lost his job, Domon had to abandon his studies and begin working in a furniture shop. As a young man, Domon was passionate about painting, and exhibited an oil painting at the Yokohama annual art exhibition in 1926. He continued to paint in his free time and took shamisen lessons. He was arrested by the police and only released upon promising to break all ties with communism.

Domon's mother advised him to join the photo studio of Miyauchi Kōtarō as an apprentice in 1933. From 1934 until the end of the Asia Pacific War, the agency published NIPPON, a photo magazine targeted at foreigners to promote Japanese culture abroad. Art historian Gennifer Weisenfeld notes that as such "it served as a quasi-governmental organ of national propaganda", receiving support from several state agencies.

Photojournalism began to transform in the mid-1930s as Japan became increasingly nationalistic in the wake of the imperial expansion, eventually leading to the second Sino-Japanese war and the country's participation in World War II. Domon's pictures consequently became military-focused, depicting subjects such as Red Cross nurses and soldiers in training. His compositions rely on tightly organized groupings that convey collective order and strict discipline.

The tension between Natori and Domon continued to grow as Domon developed his ideas on photography and began publishing his photos in other magazines. Natori believed photography to be at the service of mass media, whereas Domon believed that the medium was a form of artistic expression. Murō-ji would be the catalyst for Domon's life-long work, Pilgrimage to Ancient Temples (Koji Junrei).

Domon's other significant wartime endeavor was a series on bunraku, a traditional form of Japanese puppet theater, which he began in 1941. Working with the puppeteers and the dark setting of the theater proved to be challenging. Nonetheless, Domon, with the help of assistants, worked tirelessly, using a heavy, primitive camera that was difficult to operate. As the publishing business gradually recovered, he was able to find jobs working for different photo magazines.

In 1950, Domon began work as a judge for the monthly photo contest organized by Camera magazine. He wrote short texts that accompanied the amateur photographs, and it was in these texts that the photographer began using "realism" (Riarizumu) to describe the photographs he admired.

Domon associated realism with the photographic "snapshot" (sunappu). He first encountered this notion at a round-table discussion with the ethnographer Kunio Yanagita in 1943. Yanagita argued that staged images had no scholarly value and advocated for the "snapshot": an image where no direction is given by the photographer.

Hiroshima In 1953, Domon published an essay condemning photographers who "diverted their eyes from current reality", explicitly evoking a photography exhibition organized by the Japan Photography Society (Nihon Shashinkai) that made no reference whatsoever to the war and its consequences. Domon published the images in a 1958 eponymous volume, which included 130 pages of photographs and 46 pages of notes by Domon.

Despite the initial shock generated after its publication, Hiroshima received critical acclaim and remains a highly appreciated work of art for its humanist vision. Nobel prize laureate Kenzaburō Ōe wrote: "To depict living people who are fighting against the bomb, rather than the world of those who have died because of the bomb, is to face up head-on to the essence of art from an entirely human perspective."

Pilgrimage to ancient temples [Koji Junrei] and late career Having nourished his interest for Buddhist temples since photographing Murō-ji, Domon continued to photograph temples throughout his career until he was finally no longer physically able. He photographed thirty-nine in total. While the images were originally intended to be printed in the periodical Camera Mainichi, Domon felt that this format did not suit the material. Instead, the photographs were printed in five rich volumes, published in 1963, 1965, 1968, 1971 and 1975.

Domon's method of photographing these temples was to stay at the location for a time before taking the first photo. He would then begin photographing based not on a systematic, scholarly approach to the subject, but based on how his feelings towards the subjects moved him to record them.

Publications Books by Domon

Nihon no chōkoku (日本の彫刻). Tokyo: Bijutsushuppansha, 1952. 2. Asuka jidai (飛鳥時代). 5. Heian jidai (平安時代). Fūbō (風貌). Tokyo: Ars, 1953. Murōji (室生寺). Tokyo: Bijutsushuppansha, 1955. The Muro-ji, an eighth century Japanese temple: Its art and history. Tokyo: Bijutsu Shuppansha, c. 1954. Text by Roy Andrew Miller. With 渡辺勉. Gendai geijutsu kōza (現代芸術講座 写真). 1956. Murōji (室生寺). Tokyo: Bijutsushuppansha, 1957. Domon Ken sakuhinshū (土門拳作品集). Gendai Nihon shashin zenshū 2. 創元社, 1958. Hiroshima (ヒロシマ) / Hiroshima. 研光社, 1958. Chūsonji (中尊寺). Nihon no Tera 4. Tokyo: Bijutsushuppansha, 1959. Saihōji, Ryūanji (西芳寺・竜安寺). Nihon no tera 10. Tokyo: Bijutsushuppansha, 1959. Chikuhō no kodomotachi: Ken Domon shashinshū (筑豊のこどもたち：土門拳写真集). Patoria Shoten, 1960. 築地書館, 1977. Chikuhō no kodomotachi: Ken Domon shashinshū. Zoku: Rumie-chan ha otōsan ga shinda (筑豊のこどもたち：土門拳写真集 続 るみえちゃんはお父さんが死んだ). Patoria Shoten, 1960. Hōryūji (法隆寺). Nihon no Tera 6. Tokyo: Bijutsushuppansha, 1961. Murōji (室生寺). Nihon no Tera 13. Tokyo: Bijutsushuppansha, 1961. Kyōto (京都). Nihon no Tera. Tokyo: Bijutsushuppansha, 1961. Nara (奈良). Nihon no Tera. Tokyo: Bijutsushuppansha, 1961. Masterpieces of Japanese sculpture Tokyo: Bijutsuhuppansha; Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle, 1961. Text by J. E. Kidder. Kasuga (春日). Nihon no Yashiro 4. Tokyo: Bijutsushuppansha, 1962. Koji junrei (古寺巡礼). 5 vols. Tokyo: Bijutsushuppansha, 1963–75. International edition (with English texts added to the Japanese): A Pilgrimage to Ancient Temples. Tokyo: Bijutsushuppansha, 1980. Tōji: Daishinomitera (東寺: 大師のみてら). Tokyo: Bijutsushuppansha, 1965. Shigaraki Ōtsubo (信楽大壷). Tokyo: Chūnichi Shinbun Shuppankyoku, 1965. Sōfū; his boundless world of flowers and form. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1966. Text by Teshigahara Sōfu. Nihonjin no genzō (日本人の原像). Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1966. Yakushiji (薬師寺). Tokyo: Mainichi Shinbunsha, 1971. Bunraku (文楽). Kyoto: Shinshindō, 1972. Tōdaiji (東大寺). Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1973. Nihon meishōden (日本名匠伝). Kyoto: Shinshindō, 1974. Portraits of the famous, mostly in color. Koyō henreki (古窯遍歴). Tokyo: Yarai Shoin, 1974. Shinu koto to ikiru koto (死ぬことと生きること). 築地書館, 1974. Watakushi no bigaku (私の美学, My aesthetics). Kyoto: Shinshindō, 1975. Domon photographs Japanese arts and architecture (in both black and white and color), and writes commentary on these. Nihon no bi (日本の美). Nishinomiya: Itō Hamu Eiyō Shokuhin, 1978. Shashin hihyō (写真批評). Daviddosha, 1978. Nyoninkōya Murōji (女人高野室生寺). Tokyo: Bijutsushuppansha, 1978. Fūkei (風景). Tokyo: Yarai Shoin, 1976. Popular edition, Tokyo: Yarai Shoin, 1978. Gendai chōkoku: Chōkoku no Mori Bijutsukan korekushon (現代彫刻: 彫刻の森美術館コレクション) / Sculptures modernes: Collection de The Hakone Open-air Museum. Tokyo: Sankei Shinbunsha, 1979. With some French as well as Japanese text. Shashin zuihitsu (写真随筆). Tokyo: Daviddosha, 1979. Domon Ken Nihon no Chōkoku(土門拳日本の彫刻). Tokyo: Bijutsushuppansha. 1. Asuka, Nara (飛鳥・奈良). 1979. 2. Heian zenki (平安前期). 1980. 3. Heian kōki, Kamakura (平安後期・鎌倉). 1980. Domon Ken: Sono shūi no shōgen (土門拳：その周囲の証言). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1980. Nihon no bien (日本の美艶). Gendai Nihon Shashin Zenshū 7. Tokyo: Shūeisha, 1980. Domon Ken Nihon no kotōji: Tanba, Imari, Karatsu, Eshino, Oribe, Tokoname, Atsumi, Shigaraki, Kutani, Bizen (土門拳日本の古陶磁：丹波・伊万里・唐津・絵志野・織部・常滑・渥美・信楽・九谷・備前). Tokyo: Bijutsushuppansha, 1981. Domon Ken (土門拳). Shōwa Shashin Zenshigoto 5. Tokyo: Asahi Shuppansha, 1982. A survey of Domon's work. Domon Ken zenshū (土門拳全集). Tokyo: Shōgakukan. 1. Koji junrei 1 Yamato-hen jō (古寺巡礼 1 大和篇 上). 1983. . 2. Koji junrei 2 Yamato-hen ge (古寺巡礼 2 大和篇 下). 1984. . 3. Koji junrei 3 Kyōto-hen (京都篇). . 4. Koji junrei 4 Zenkoku-hen (古寺巡礼 4 全国篇). 1984. . 5. Nyonin Kōya Muroji (女人高野室生寺). 1984. . 6. Bunraku (文楽). 1985. . 7. Dentō no katachi (伝統のかたち). 1984. . 8. Nihon no fūkei (日本の風景). 1984. . 9. Fūbō (風貌). 1984. . 10. Hiroshima (ヒロシマ). 1985. . 11. Chikuhō no kodomotachi (筑豊のこどもたち). 1985. . 12. Kessakusen jō (傑作選 上). 1985. . 13. Kessakusen ge (傑作選 下). 1985. . Domon Ken no koji junrei (土門拳の古寺巡礼). Tokyo: Shōgakukan, 1989–90. 1. Yamato 1 (大和1). 1989. . 2. Yamato 2 (大和2). 1990. . 3. Kyōto 1. (京都1). 1989. . 4. Kyōto 2. (京都2). 1990. . 5. Murōji (室生寺). 1990. . Bessatsu 1. Higashi Nihon (東日本). 1990. . Bessatsu 2. Nishi Nihon (西日本). 1990. . Domon Ken Nihon no butsuzō (土門拳日本の仏像). Tokyo: Shōgakukan, 1992. . Murōji (室生寺). Nihon Meikenchiku Shashinsenshū 1. Tokyo: Shinchōsha, 1992. . Domon Ken no Shōwa (土門拳の昭和). Tokyo: Shōgakukan, 1995. 1. Fūbō (風貌). . 2. Kodomotachi (こどもたち). . 3. Nihon no fūkei (日本の風景). . 4. Dokyumento Nihon 1935–1967 (ドキュメント日本 1935–1967). . 5. Nihon no butsuzō (日本の仏像). . Koji junrei (古寺巡礼). Tokyo: Mainichi Shinbunsha, c1995. Domon Ken Koji Junrei (土門拳古寺巡礼). Tokyo: Bijutsu Shuppansha, 1996. . Shashin to jinsei: Domon Ken esseishū (写真と人生：土門拳エッセイ集). Dōjidai Raiburarī. Tokyo: Iwanami, 1997. Domon Ken (土門拳). Nihon no Shashinka. Tokyo: Iwanami, 1998. . Koji junrei (古寺巡礼). Tokyo: Shōgakukan, 1998. . 風貌 愛蔵版 Tokyo: Shōgakukan, 1999. . Domon Ken kottō no bigaku (土門拳骨董の美学). Korona Bukkusu 69. Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1999. . Domon Ken no tsutaetakatta Nihon (土門拳の伝えたかった日本) Tokyo: Mainichi Shuppansha, 2000. . Domon Ken Nihon no chōkoku (土門拳日本の彫刻 Tokyo: Mainichi Shinbunsha, c2000. Exhibition catalogue. Kengan (拳眼). Tokyo: Sekai Bunkasha, 2001. . Kenshin (拳心). Tokyo: Sekai Bunkasha, 2001. . Kenkon (拳魂). Tokyo: Sekai Bunkasha, 2002. . 逆白波のひと・土門拳の生涯 / 佐高信∥ Āto Serekushon. Tokyo: Shōgakukan, 2003. Domon Ken tsuyoku utsukushii mono: Nihon bitanbō (土門拳強く美しいもの：日本美探訪) Shōgakukan Bunko. Tokyo: Shōgakukan, 2003. .

Books with works by Domon

Association to Establish the Japan Peace Museum, ed. Ginza to sensō (銀座と戦争) / Ginza and the War. Tokyo: Atelier for Peace, 1986. . Domon is one of ten photographers — the others are Shigeo Hayashi, Tadahiko Hayashi, Kōyō Ishikawa, Kōyō Kageyama, Shunkichi Kikuchi, Ihei Kimura, Kōji Morooka, Minoru Ōki, and Maki Sekiguchi — who provide 340 photographs for this well-illustrated and large photographic history of Ginza from 1937 to 1947. Captions and text in both Japanese and English. (Joint work) Bunshi no shōzō hyakujūnin (文士の肖像一一〇人, Portraits of 110 literati). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1990. . Domon is one of five photographers — the others are Shōtarō Akiyama, Hiroshi Hamaya, Ihei Kimura and Tadahiko Hayashi. Kaku: Hangenki (核：半減期) / The Half Life of Awareness: Photographs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 1995. Exhibition catalogue; captions and text in both Japanese and English. There are 12 pages of photographs taken by Domon in 1957 and 1967 of Hiroshima, particularly of medical treatment; (other works are by Toshio Fukada, Kikujirō Fukushima, Shigeo Hayashi, Kenji Ishiguro, Shunkichi Kikuchi, Mitsugi Kishida, Eiichi Matsumoto, Yoshito Matsushige, Shōmei Tōmatsu, Hiromi Tsuchida and Yōsuke Yamahata). Text and captions in both Japanese and English. Mishima Yasushi (三島靖). Kimura Ihee to Domon Ken: Shashin to sono shōgai (木村伊兵衛と土門拳：写真とその生涯, Ihei Kimura and Ken Domon: Photography and biography). Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1995. . Reprint. Heibonsha Library. Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2004. . Dokyumentarī no jidai: Natori Yōnosuke, Kimura Ihee, Domon Ken, Miki Jun no shashin kara (ドキュメンタリーの時代：名取洋之助・木村伊兵衛・土門 拳・三木淳の写真から) / The Documentary Age: Photographs by Natori Younosuke, Kimura Ihei, Domon Ken, and Miki Jun. Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 2001. An exhibition catalogue. Captions in both Japanese and English, other text in Japanese only. Hiraki, Osamu, and Keiichi Takeuchi. Japan, a Self-Portrait: Photographs 1945–1964. Paris: Flammarion, 2004. . Domon is one of eleven photographers whose works appear in this large book (the others are Hiroshi Hamaya, Tadahiko Hayashi, Eikoh Hosoe, Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Kikuji Kawada, Ihei Kimura, Shigeichi Nagano, Ikkō Narahara, Takeyoshi Tanuma, and Shōmei Tōmatsu). Kindai shashin no umi no oya: Kimura Ihee to Domon Ken (近代写真の生みの親：木村伊兵衛と土門拳) / Kimura Ihei and Domon Ken. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha and Mainichi Shinbunsha, 2004. Catalogue of an exhibition. Sengo shashin / Saisei to tenkai (戦後写真・再生と展開) / Twelve Photographers in Japan, 1945–55. Yamaguchi: Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, 1990. Despite the alternative title in English, almost exclusively in Japanese (although each of the twelve has a potted chronology in English). Catalogue of an exhibition held at Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art. Twenty of Domon's photographs of children in Tokyo appear on pp. 18–28. Szarkowski, John, and Shōji Yamagishi. New Japanese Photography. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1974. (hard), (paper).

Books on Domon

Satake Makoto (佐高信). Sakashiranami no hito: Domon Ken no shōgai (逆白波のひと・土門拳の生涯). Tokyo: Shōgakukan, 2003. .