Shōmei Tōmatsu

was a Japanese photographer. He is known primarily for his images that depict the impact of World War II on Japan and the subsequent occupation of U.S. forces. As one of the leading postwar photographers, Tōmatsu is attributed with influencing the younger generations of photographers including those associated with the magazine Provoke (Takuma Nakahira and Daido Moriyama).

Biography Youth Tōmatsu was born in Nagoya in 1930. As an adolescent during World War II, he was mobilized to support Japan's war effort. Like many Japanese students his age, he was sent to work at a steel factory and underwent incessant conditioning intended to instill fear and hatred towards the British and Americans. Once the war ended and Allied troops took over numerous Japanese cities, Tōmatsu interacted with Americans firsthand and found that his preconceptions of them were not entirely salient. At the time Tōmatsu's contempt for the violence and crimes committed by these soldiers was complicated by individual acts of kindness he received from them – he simultaneously loved and hated their presence. These interactions, which he later described as among the most formative memories of his childhood, initiated his long-standing fixation on and feelings of ambivalence towards the subject of American soldiers.

Early career (1950s) Tōmatsu embraced photography while an economics student at Aichi University. While still in university, his photographs were shown frequently in monthly amateur competitions by Camera magazine and received recognition from Ihei Kimura and Ken Domon. After graduating in 1954, he joined Iwanami Shashin Bunko, through an introduction made by Aichi University professor Mataroku Kumaza. Tōmatsu contributed photographs to the issues Floods and the Japanese (1954) and Pottery Town, Seto Aichi (1954). He stayed at Iwanami for two years before leaving to pursue freelance work.

In 1957, Tōmatsu participated in the exhibition Eyes of Ten where he displayed his series Barde Children's School; he was featured in the exhibit twice more when it was held again in 1958 and 1959. After his third showing, Tōmatsu established the short-lived photography collective VIVO with fellow Eyes of Ten exhibitors; these other members included Eikoh Hosoe, Kikuji Kawada, Ikkō Narahara, Akira Satō, and Akira Tanno.

Towards the end of the 1950s, Tōmatsu began photographing Japanese towns with major American bases, a project that would span over 10 years.

1960s Tōmatsu's artistic output and renown grew significantly during the 1960s, exemplified by his prolific engagements with many prominent Japanese photography magazines. He began the decade by publishing his images of U.S. bases in the magazines Asahi Camera and Camera Mainichi and his series Home in Photo Art. In contrast to his earlier style which resembled traditional photojournalism, Tōmatsu was beginning to develop a highly expressionistic form of image taking that emphasized the photographer's own subjectivity. In response to this emergence, a dispute arose when Iwanami Shashin Bunko founder Yonosuke Natori wrote that Tōmatsu had betrayed his foundations as a photojournalist by neglecting the responsibility to present reality in a truthful and legible manner. He rejected the claim that he was ever a photojournalist, and admonished journalistic thinking as an impediment to photography. Both essays were published in Asahi Camera. In addition to Asahi Camera and Photo Art, Tōmatsu worked for magazines Gendai no me and Camera Mainichi. For Gendai no me, he edited a monthly series titled I am King (1964); for Camera Mainichi, he printed multiple collaborations made with Yasuhiro Ishimoto and Shigeichi Nagano in 1965 and his own series, The Sea Around Us in 1966.

Nagasaki In 1960, Tōmatsu was commissioned to photograph Nagasaki by the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs (, abbrev. Gensuikyō), after the conference determined that visual images were necessary to show international audiences the effects of the atomic bomb. The following year, Tōmatsu was guided around Nagasaki, having the opportunity to speak with and photograph victims of the atomic bomb, also known as hibakusha. Like many Japanese people at the time, Tōmatsu had only cursory knowledge about the devastation. He found that the shock of the hibakusha's appearance initially made photographing them extremely difficult. In an interview with Linda Hoaglund and in the revised introduction to his book <11:02> Nagasaki, he spoke on the greater attention paid in this second book towards the impact of the atomic bomb on the Catholic community in Nagasaki, which greatly differed from the hibakusha in Hiroshima. His interest in Nagasaki's Catholic history was one component in his investigation of Nagasaki's development into a 20th-century city. Tōmatsu would move to Nagasaki in 1988.

Shaken After Tōmatsu's publisher Shashin Dōjinsha folded and <11:02> Nagasaki encountered unexpectedly poor sales, Tomatsu founded his own publishing company Shaken in 1967. Through Shaken, Tōmatsu published Nippon (1967), a collection of images from ten series that was initially meant to be split into three individual books; Essays, both textual and visual, were contributed by Provoke members and other prominent Japanese photographers including Masahisa Fukase and Kazuo Kitai.

1970s

Okinawa Tōmatsu first went to Okinawa to photograph the American bases under the auspices of Asahi Camera in 1969. he spent seven months on Miyakojima where he organized a study group called "Miyako University" aimed at mentoring young Miyako residents. Combined with his images taken in Southeast Asia, Tōmatsu's photographs of Okinawa from the 1970s were shown in his prizewinning Pencil of the Sun (1975). Although he had come to Okinawa in order to witness its return to Japanese territory, Pencil of the Sun revealed a considerable shift away from the subject of military bases that he pursued throughout 1960s. Tomatsu's dedication to nurturing the photography community in Japan was also evidenced in his role as a juror for the Southern Japan Photography Exhibition and his membership in the Photographic Society of Japan's committee to create a national museum of photography.

Tōmatsu took part in his first major international show, New Japanese Photography (1974) at MoMA New York, alongside workshop members Hosoe, Moriyama, Fukase, and 11 other photographers. New Japanese Photography was the first survey of contemporary Japanese photographers undertaken outside of Japan. in 1994, he was featured in the seminal show Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky at the Yokohama Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Sakura + Plastics Due to existing heart problems, Tōmatsu received heart bypass surgery in 1986 and moved to Chiba as part of his recovery. While in Chiba, he roamed the beaches near his home and photographed the debris that washed up onto on the black sand shores; the resulting photo series was titled Plastics. Around the same time, he developed his Sakura series which first featured in Asahi Camera (1983) then released as the book Sakura Sakura Sakura (1990). with Plastics demonstrating his increasingly allusive approach towards these themes.

In 1992, the series was shown together in Sakura + Plastics at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, making it the museum's first solo exhibition for a living Japanese artist.

Final years (2000–2012) In the last decade of his career, Tōmatsu embarked on a new and comprehensive series of retrospectives, dividing his oeuvre into five "mandalas" of place. Each mandala was named after the area it was exhibited: Nagasaki Mandala (Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, 2000); Okinawa Mandala (Urasoe Art Museum, 2002); Kyoto Mandala (Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art, 2003); Aichi Mandala (Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, 2006); and Tokyo Mandala (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 2007)

Tōmatsu also had a separate retrospective, Shomei Tomatsu: Skin of the Nation, for the international museum circuit. Skin of the Nation was organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and curated by Sandra S. Phillips and the photographer and writer Leo Rubinfien. The exhibition toured three countries and five venues from 2004 through 2006: Japan Society (New York); National Gallery of Canada, Corcoran Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Fotomuseum Winterthur.

In 2010 Tōmatsu moved to Okinawa permanently, where he held the final exhibition during his lifetime, Tomatsu Shomei and Okinawa - Love Letter to the Sun (2011). He succumbed to pneumonia on 14 December 2012 (although this was not publicly announced until January 2013).

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions What Now!?: Japan through the Eyes of Shōmei Tōmatsu, 1981. (30 venues) Shōmei Tōmatsu: Japan, 1952-1981, (1984) Fotogalerie im Forum Stadpark, Austria; Traklhaus, Salzburg; Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna; Körnerpark Galerie, Berlin; Fotoforum, Bremen; Stadtische Galerie, Erlangen, Germany; Museet for Fotokunst, Odense, Denmark. Sakura + Plastics, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992 Traces: Fifty Years of Tōmatsu's Work, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, 1999 Mandala Retrospectives (2000-2007) Nagasaki Mandala (Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, 2000) Okinawa Mandala (Urasoe Art Museum, 2002) Kyoto Mandala (Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art, 2003) Aichi Mandala (Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, 2006) Tokyo Mandala (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 2007) Shomei Tomatsu: Skin of the Nation (2004–2006), Japan Society, New York (September 2004 – January 2005), National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (January – April), Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington, D.C. (May – August), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (February–May 2006), Fotomuseum Winterthur (September–November 2006). Shomei Tomatsu, Fundación Mapfre Casa Garriga Nogués, Barcelona, June–September 2018. The first Tomatsu retrospective in Spain.

Group exhibitions Eyes of Ten, Konishiroku Photo Gallery, Tokyo 1957, 1958, 1959. New Japanese Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York, March–May 1974 Denver Art Museum; Saint Louis Art Museum; Minneapolis Institute of the Arts; Winnipeg Art Gallery; Kranner Art Museum; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Seattle Art Museum; Portland Art Museum Black Sun: The Eyes of Four, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, 1985. Travelled to Serpentine Gallery, London; University of Iowa Museum of Art; Japan House Gallery, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Baltimore Museum of Art. Japanese Art After 1945: Scream Against the Sky (1994), 1961: Photographer of the Year, Japan Photo Critics Association 1976: Mainichi Art Award 1976: Science and Culture's Art Encouragement Award Minister of Education 1995: Purple Ribbon Medal, Japanese government 1997: St. James Modern Masterpiece Award 1999: Japan Art Grand Prix, Shincho Awards 2003: Chunichi Culture Award 2005: Distinguished Contributions Award, Photographic Society of Japan

Books of Tōmatsu's works Books by Tōmatsu and compilations of his works Suigai to nihonjin (, Floods and the Japanese). Iwanami Shashin Bunko 124. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1954. Joint work. The photographs are reproduced within Aichi Mandala (2006). Yakimono no machi: Seto (, Pottery town: Seto). Iwanami Shashin Bunko 165. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1955. The photographs are reproduced within Aichi Mandala (2006). Hiroshima–Nagasaki Document 1961. Tokyo: Japan Council against A- and H-Bombs. With Ken Domon. "11 ji 02 fun" Nagasaki (, "11:02" Nagasaki). Tokyo: Shashin Dōjinsha, 1966. Nippon (, Japan). Tokyo: Shaken, 1967. Sarāmu areikomu (, Assalamu Alaykum). Tokyo: Shaken, 1968. Photographs of Afghanistan, taken in August 1963. Ō! Shinjuku (, Oh! Shinjuku). Tokyo: Shaken, 1969. Okinawa Okinawa Okinawa . Tokyo: Shaken, 1969. Sengoha . Tokyo: Chūōkōronsha, 1971. Tokyo: Gurabia Seikōsha, 1971. I Am a King. Tokyo: Shashinhyōronsha, 1972. Taiyō no empitsu (新編 太陽の鉛筆, Pencil of the Sun). Tokyo: Mainichi, 1975. Akemodoro no hana (, Scarlet Dappled Flower). Tokyo: Sanseidō, 1976. Doro no Ōkoku (, Kingdom of Mud). Sonorama Shashin Sensho 12. Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1978. Text in English and Japanese. A reworking of the material published earlier in Sarāmu areikomu. Hikaru kaze (, Sparkling Winds: Okinawa). Nihon no Bi. Tokyo: Shūeisha, 1979. Text in Japanese. A large-format (37 cm high) book of color photographs of Okinawa. A supplementary colophon gives publication details in English (including the only mention of the English title), but all the explanations and other texts are in Japanese only. Shōwa shashin: Zenshigoto 15: Tōmatsu Shōmei (昭和写真・全仕事：). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1984. One in a series of books of which each is devoted to the entire career of a single photographer. Shomei Tomatsu, Japan 1952–1981. Graz: Edition Camera Austria; Vertrieb, Forum Stadtpark Graz, 1984. . In German and English. Haien: Tōmatsu Shōmei sakuhinshū (, Ruinous Gardens). Tokyo: Parco, 1987. . Edited by Toshiharu Ito. Sakura sakura sakura 66 . Osaka: Brain Center, 1990. . Color photographs of sakura. Sakura sakura sakura 120 / Sakura. Osaka: Brain Center, 1990. . Color photographs of sakura. Texts in both Japanese and English. Nagasaki "11:02" 1945-nen 8-gatsu 9-nichi . Photo Musée. Tokyo: Shinchōsha, 1995. . Visions of Japan. Kyoto: Kōrinsha, 1997. . Photographs taken 1987–9 of plastic goods washed up by the sea. Tomatsu Shomei. Visions of Japan. Kyoto: Kōrinsha, 1998. . Toki no shimajima . Tokyo: Iwanami, 1998. . Text by Ryūta Imafuku . Nihon no Shashinka 30: Tōmatsu Shōmei (日本の写真家30： ). Tokyo: Iwanami, 1999. . A compact overview of Tōmatsu's career, within a series about the Japanese photographic pantheon. Tōmatsu Shōmei 1951–60 (, Shōmei Tōmatsu 1951–60). Tokyo: Sakuhinsha, 2000. . Jeffrey, Ian. Shomei Tomatsu. Phaidon 55. London: Phaidon, 2001. . Nantō / Nan-to. Gallery Nii, 2007. Color photographs of Taiwan, Guam, Saipan, and other islands in the southern Pacific. camp OKINAWA. Tokyo: Mirai-sha, 2010. The 9th book in the Okinawa Photograph Series (沖縄写真家シリーズ[琉球烈像] 第9巻). Shomei Tomatsu Photographs 1951-2000. Berlin: Only Photography, 2012. Text in Japanese and English. Make. Super Labo, 2013. Text in Japanese and English. Chewing Gum and Chocolate. New York: Aperture, 2013. Shinhen taiyō no empitsu (新編 太陽の鉛筆, Pencil of the Sun: New Edition). Kyoto: AKAAKA, 2015. Mr. Freedom. Tokyo: Akio Nagasawa Publishing, 2020. Text in Japanese and English.

Exhibition catalogues Interface: Shomei Tomatu Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, 1996. Text in Japanese and English. Nihon rettō kuronikuru: Tōmatsu no 50-nen / Traces: 50 years of Tomatsu's works. Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 1999. Text in Japanese and English. Rubinfien, Leo, et al. Shomei Tomatsu: Skin of the Nation. Yale University Press, 2004. . Exhibition first held at SFMOMA. Camp karafuru na! Amarinimo karafuru na!! . Gallery Nii, 2005. Colorful photographs around US military bases in Okinawa. Nagasaki mandara: Tōmatsu Shōmei no me 1961– . Nagasaki: Nagasaki Shinbunsha, 2005. . Aichi mandara: Tōmatsu Shōmei no gen-fūkei / Aichi Mandala: The Early works of Shomei Tomatsu. Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art and Chunichi Shimbun, 2006. Exhibition held June–July 2006. Photographs 1950–59, and also a small number of later works, of Aichi. This large book has captions in Japanese and English, some other texts in both languages, and some material in Japanese only. Tōkyō mandara / Tokyo Mandala: The World of Shomei Tomatsu. Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 1997. Exhibition held October–December 2007. Tomatsu Shomei Photographs (写真家・東松照明 全仕事). Nagoya: Nagoya Art Museum, 2011. Tōmatsu Shōmei to okinawa taiyō no raburetā (東松照明と沖縄 太陽へのラブレター, Tomatsu Shomei and Okinawa. Love Letter to the Sun). Okinawa: Okinawa Prefectural Museum, 2011. Tomatsu Shomei Photographs. Toyama: Tonami Art Museum 2012.

Other contributions

Hiraki, Osamu, and Keiichi Takeuchi. Japan, a Self-Portrait: Photographs 1945–1964. Paris: Flammarion, 2004. . Tōmatsu is one of eleven photographers whose works appear in this large book (the others are Ken Domon, Hiroshi Hamaya, Tadahiko Hayashi, Eikoh Hosoe, Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Kikuji Kawada, Ihei Kimura, Shigeichi Nagano, Ikkō Narahara, Takeyoshi Tanuma). Holborn, Mark. Black Sun: The Eyes of Four: Roots and Innovation in Japanese Photography. New York: Aperture, 1986. . The other three are Masahisa Fukase, Eikoh Hosoe, and Daidō Moriyama. 25-nin no 20-dai no shashin / Works by 25 Photographers in their 20s. Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts exhibition catalogue, 1995. Parallel texts in Japanese and English. Kaku: Hangenki / 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. Twenty-three pages are devoted to photographs by Tōmatsu (other works are by Ken Domon, Toshio Fukada, Kikujirō Fukushima, Shigeo Hayashi, Kenji Ishiguro, Shunkichi Kikuchi, Mitsugi Kishida, Eiichi Matsumoto, Yoshito Matsushige, Hiromi Tsuchida and Yōsuke Yamahata). Nihon shashin no tenkan: 1960 nendai no hyōgen / Innovation in Japanese Photography in the 1960s. Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 1991. Exhibition catalogue, text in Japanese and English. Pp. 78–88 show photographs from the series "11:02 Nagasaki". Szarkowski, John, and Shoji Yamagishi. New Japanese Photography. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1974. (hard), (paper). Contains twenty photographs by Tōmatsu. Yamagishi, Shoji, ed. Japan: A Self-Portrait. New York: International Center of Photography, 1979. (hard), (paper). Contains twelve photographs by Tōmatsu of "American bases and their surroundings: 1960s–1970s".