Katsumi Watanabe: The Tale of Shinjuku Thieves

"Shinjuku Guntoden Den" is a photo collection by Katsumi Watanabe , a photographer who stands out in the history of Japanese photography. It is a sequel to "Shinjuku Guntoden" published in 1973 and released in 1982.

He first encountered photography while working for a newspaper company, and after moving to Tokyo he trained at the prestigious Tojo Kaikan Studio. He then set up his own business as a wandering photographer in the Kabukicho area, taking portraits for 200 yen a set of three while walking around Shinjuku at night. Armed with an enlarger he bought with his meager retirement money, he continued to confront people living on the fringes of society head-on: homeless people, sex workers, gay men, delinquents, and gangsters.

In the 1970s, Shinjuku was engulfed in a wave of rapid economic growth and redevelopment, with single-story and wooden buildings disappearing and replaced by a forest of skyscrapers. With the spread of cameras equipped with flashes, the "floating" business came to an end, but Watanabe did not leave the city. "A city where hidden things come to the surface and then disappear like bubbles" - in the midst of this transforming city, he captured people's desires, loneliness, celebrations, and emptiness with intense flash and a deep sense of distance.

The book was designed by Kohei Sugiura and published as part of the Banseisha Yagenbura selection, with the trinity of photographs, words, and design capturing the breath of the gigantic theater that is Shinjuku.

[Title] Shinjuku Gunto Den Den
[Publisher] Banseisha
[Publication date] 2019
[Number of pages] 222 pages
[Size] Approx. 15 x 21 x 3.5 cm
[Format] Softcover
[Language] Japanese
[Title Reading] Shinjuku Gunto Den Den
[Authors/Editors] Katsumi Watanabe/Author, Kohei Sugiura/Design
[printing]
[ISBN]
[Condition] Used [5] Average (slight discoloration due to age)
[Accessories] None
[Featured book] -
[Related Exhibitions]

Katsumi Watanabe ( 1941–2006)

Born in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture in 1941. Photographer.
While attending Morioka Daiichi High School part-time, he worked as an assistant at the Morioka branch of the Mainichi Newspaper Company, where he discovered the appeal of photography through developing and printing. After graduating from high school, he joined the Japanese National Railways, but was unable to let go of his passion for photography, so he moved to Tokyo in 1961. From the following year, he worked at the prestigious Tojo Kaikan Studio for about five years, learning the basics of studio photography.

In 1965, he began working as a wandering photographer in the Kabukicho area of ​​Shinjuku, taking portraits of people gathering in one pose for 200 yen per set of three. He captured the intense human dynamics of the people gathering in the city at night head-on.

In 1973, his photo "Shinjuku Kabukicho," featured in the "Album" section of the June issue of Camera Mainichi magazine, won the Album Award. In the same year, he published the photo collection Shinjuku Guntoden (Bara Gahosha). While continuing to photograph Shinjuku, he also ran a sweet potato shop and a photo studio, and worked as a photographer for weekly magazines such as Focus and Shukan Bunshun.

In 1998, he received the Photographic Society of Japan Annual Award for his photo collection "Shinjuku 1965-97." He passed away on January 29, 2006, due to pneumonia.

His reputation continued to grow even after his death, and in 2006 he held a solo exhibition, "KATSUMI WATANABE," at the Andrew Roth Gallery in New York, and published the photo book, "Gangs of Kabukicho" (PPP Editions). In 2008, a retrospective, "Wandering Photographer Katsumi Watanabe 1965-2005," was held at the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art. His works are also included in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art .

http://watanabekatsumi.web.fc2.com/

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Katsumi Watanabe