Showa Photography / Complete Works SERIES 6 Yoichi Midorikawa

A collection of Yoichi Midorikawa's (1915–2001) work spanning approximately 40 years. This is Volume 6 of the "Showa Photography: A Complete Record" series published by Asahi Shimbun in 1982. It includes Midorikawa's diverse activities, from early documentary photography to portraits of women, nudes, European landscapes, and his signature photographs of the Seto Inland Sea.

It introduces early works capturing the lives and industries along the Seto Inland Sea, such as "People of Seto," "Island in the South Where Stones Appear," "Salt Fields," and "Two Farming Methods," as well as "Woman in Black," "Nude Collection," "Nostalgic Nightscapes," and "Street Scenes: Kurashiki." His work progresses from documenting post-war society and people's lives to exploring his unique sense of form and color expression.

After a photography trip to Europe in 1959, Midorikawa re-examined his hometown's Seto Inland Sea from a new perspective. His fantastical landscape photographs, which made full use of light and color, culminated in the photo book "Seto Inland Sea" (1962). In addition to these representative landscape works, this book also includes works photographed in various parts of Japan and overseas, such as "Foreign Sketches," "Mountains and Rivers of My Hometown," "Longing for Kyoto," "Snow, Moon, and Flowers at the Imperial Palace," and "Poem of the Ancient Castle."

The end of the book includes an autobiography and chronology by Midorikawa himself, a critique titled "On Yoichi Midorikawa" by Hiroen Shigemori, and a dialogue exploring Midorikawa's photographic world. In the afterword, he reflects on his journey from early reportage of the Seto Inland Sea to photography of women, his trip to Europe, and his return to his hometown sea.

This volume offers a comprehensive overview of Yoichi Midorikawa's work, which continued throughout his life photographing the landscapes of the Seto Inland Sea, evolving from documentary photography to fantastical color expression.

[Title] Showa Photography: A Complete Record SERIES 6 Yoichi Midorikawa
[Publisher] Asahi Shimbun
[Publication Date] October 1, 1982 (First Edition)
[Number of Pages] 136 pages
[Size] Approx. 242 × 297 × 13 mm / 930 g
[Format] Softcover
[Language] Japanese
[Title Reading] Showa Shashin: Zen Shigoto Series 6 Midorikawa Yoichi
[Author/Editor, etc.] Yoichi Midorikawa, Author; Teruaki Okai and Yoshiko Notoya, Editors; Keisuke Kibashi, Cover Design and Layout
[Printing/Binding] Toppan Printing
[ISBN] -
[Condition] Used [6] Good to Fair (Wear on the obi, slight foxing on the endpapers)
[Accessories] Obi
[Featured in] -
[Related Exhibitions] -

Yoichi Midorikawa (1915–2001)

Born in Fuchu, Okayama Prefecture, in 1915. Photographer. After graduating from the Dental Medical School of Nihon University, he opened a dental clinic in Okayama City in 1937. He began his photographic activities around 1938 and participated in activities by photographers in the Chugoku region alongside Shoji Ueda and others.

In 1947, he formed the photographers' group "Ginryusha" with Shotaro Akiyama, Shoji Ueda, and Tadahiko Hayashi. In his early years, he photographed the lives and industries along the Seto Inland Sea and the people there, and from the 1950s, he pursued his own distinctive formal photographic expression using techniques such as long exposure, multiple exposure, and solarization.

In 1959, he spent approximately four months on a photography trip to various parts of Europe. After returning to Japan, he re-photographed the landscapes of the Seto Inland Sea and published fantastical works that made full use of color and light. In 1962, he published the photo book "Seto Inland Sea" and received the Japan Photography Critics Association Award for Author. He later received the Japan Photography Association Award and the Okayama Prefecture Cultural Award, among others.

Centering on his hometown's Seto Inland Sea, he photographed the nature and landscapes of various parts of Japan from Hokkaido to Okinawa. He is known for his unique color expression using multiple exposure and filters, and he continued his activities in the field of landscape photography.

In 1990, he received the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Fourth Class. In 1992, he opened the Yoichi Midorikawa Museum of Photography in Okayama Prefecture. In 1997, he received the Japan Photography Association Merit Award.

Major photo books include "Women" (1950), "Seto Inland Sea" (1962), "Sea" (1971), "Mountains and Rivers of Japan" (1975), "Seto Inland Sea Travelogue" (1979), "Showa Photography: A Complete Record SERIES 6 Yoichi Midorikawa" (1982), and "Japanese Photographers 22 Yoichi Midorikawa" (1997). He passed away in 2001.

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Yoichi Midorikawa
Shoji Ueda
Shotaro Akiyama
Tadahiko Hayashi
Ittpei Ito
Hiroen Shigemori
Asahi Shimbun