Kimura Ihei

Japanese: 木村伊兵衛 - きむらいへえ

Photographer. Born in Shitaya, Tokyo. A master of snapshot photography with a small camera, he was active at the forefront of the photography scene from the 1930s to the early 1970s. He became interested in photography at around the age of 13. In 1919 (Taisho 8), he graduated from Keika Commercial School in Hongo, Tokyo. The following year, he joined a sugar wholesaler in Tainan, Taiwan. While working there, he frequented a photo studio there, learning commercial photography techniques. He returned to Tokyo in 1947, and opened a photo studio in Nippori, Tokyo in 1941. He joined the amateur camera club Namiki Shayu-kai, and studied overseas photo books with members such as Iida Kojiro.

In 1930 (Showa 5), he joined the advertising department of Kao Soap Nagase Shokai as a contract employee (working there until 1933). In the same year, he purchased a Leica A camera, which had just been released, and began to concentrate on photography with a small 35 mm camera.

In 1932, he founded the magazine Koga (until 1933) with photographers Nojima Yasuzo and Nakayama Iwata, who were active in Japan at the time as promoters of modernism in photographic expression, and published city snapshots in the magazine. In 1933, he joined the Nippon Koubou (first generation) founded by photographer Natori Yonosuke, who had brought back from Germany the methodology of reportage photography, along with photography critic Ina Nobuo, planner Okada Sozo (1903-1983), and graphic designer Hara Hiromu. In the same year, he held his solo exhibition "Portraits of Literary Artists with Leica" (Kinokuniya, Ginza, Tokyo), as the first exhibition of Nippon Koubou, and presented a series of portraits that took advantage of the speed of the compact camera to capture the models' fleeting expressions in minute detail, earning high praise.

In 1934, he left Nippon Kobo and founded Chuo Kobo with Ina, Okada, and Hara. With the aim of distributing photographs to overseas media, he founded the International Press Photo Association within Chuo Kobo with Watanabe Yoshio and others, and worked on a variety of press photo projects. In the summer of 1935, he traveled to Okinawa to cover the region, breaking new ground by taking a series of snapshots at a market in Naha, while keeping in mind the mobile shooting used in film. During World War II, he belonged to Tohosha, an overseas propaganda production company established in 1941 at the request of the Army General Staff, and was responsible for the production of the overseas propaganda graphic magazine FRONT as the head of the photography department.

After the war, he joined Sun-News Photos in 1947 and became head of the photography department of the graphic magazine Weekly Sun-News (discontinued in 1949), which was planned by Natori. From the 1950s onwards, he published many works, mainly portraits of women for camera magazines, snapshots of Tokyo's downtown areas and kabuki theaters, and works taken during his trips to Europe (1954, 1955, 1960). His series "Akita", which he photographed the lives of people in Akita, Tohoku, over 21 times from 1952 to 1971, is particularly famous as his representative postwar work. He continued to take snapshots of the streets of cities, mainly in Tokyo, until his later years, and serialized them intermittently in Asahi Camera magazine from 1971 to 1974 as a series titled "Street Corner". He died of a myocardial infarction in 1974 at the age of 72. The following year, to commemorate his achievements, the Asahi Shimbun Company established the "Kimura Ihei Photography Award" for new photographers.

[Kinichi Ohirakata]

"How to Photograph and Use Small Cameras" (Photography Practical Course, Vol. 2, 1937, Genkosha)" ▽ "JAPAN THROUGH A LEICA" (1938, Sanseido)" ▽ "Royal Paradise" (1943, Ars)" ▽ "Kimura Ihei Masterpiece Collection" (1954, Asahi Shimbun)" ▽ "Kimura Ihei Travels Abroad Collection" (1955, Asahi Shimbun)" ▽ "Impressions of Europe" (1956, Asahi Shimbun)" ▽ "Kimura Ihei Photo Collection: Paris" (1974, Norasha)" ▽ "Nikon Salon Books 4: Akita" (1978, Nikkor Club)" ▽ "Kimura Ihei Complete Masterpieces, 3 volumes (1979, Sekai Bunka Publishing)" ▽ "Kimura Ihei Complete Photograph Collection Showa Era, 4 volumes (1984, Chikuma Shobo) ▽ "Japanese Photographer 8: Kimura Ihei" (1998, Iwanami Shoten) ▽ "The Definitive Edition of Kimura Ihei" (2002, Asahi Shimbun)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

写真家。東京・下谷(したや)生まれ。小型カメラによるスナップ撮影の名手として、1930年代から70年代初めまで第一線で活躍した。13歳ころから写真撮影に親しむ。1919年（大正8）東京・本郷の京華(けいか)商業学校を卒業。翌年、台湾・台南市の砂糖問屋に入社。勤務のかたわら同地の写真館に出入りし、営業写真の技術を習得する。22年に帰京し、24年東京・日暮里(にっぽり)で写真館を開業。アマチュア・カメラクラブ、並木写友会に入会し、飯田幸次郎らのメンバーと海外の写真集を研究。

　30年（昭和5）花王石鹸長瀬商会広告部に嘱託入社（33年まで勤務）。同年、登場したばかりのライカA型カメラを購入、35ミリ判小型カメラによる撮影に集中しはじめる。

　32年、当時の日本で写真表現におけるモダニズムの推進者として活躍していた写真家野島康三(やすぞう)、中山岩太(いわた)と雑誌『光画』を創刊（～1933）、都市スナップの作品を同誌に発表。33年、ドイツからルポルタージュ・フォトの方法論を持ち帰った写真家名取洋之助が創設した日本工房（第一次）に写真評論家伊奈信男、プランナー岡田桑三(そうぞう)（1903―83）、グラフィック・デザイナー原弘(ひろむ)と参加。同年、日本工房第1回展として個展「ライカによる文芸家肖像写真展」（紀伊國屋、東京・銀座）を開催、小型カメラの速写性を活かしてモデルの一瞬の表情を細(こま)やかにとらえた人物写真の連作を発表し、高い評価を得る。

　34年日本工房を離れ、伊奈、岡田、原と中央工房を設立。海外のメディアへ写真を配信する目的で、中央工房内に渡辺義雄らと国際報道写真協会を作り、さまざまな報道写真の仕事を手がける。35年夏に沖縄を取材、映画の移動撮影を意識しつつ那覇の市場でスナップの連写を試み、新境地をひらいた。第二次世界大戦中は陸軍参謀本部の意向に基づき41年に組織された対外宣伝プロダクション、東方社に所属し、写真部責任者として対外宣伝グラフ誌『FRONT』の制作に従事した。

　敗戦後、47年（昭和22）サンニュースフォトス社に入社、名取の企画によるグラフ誌『週刊サンニュース』（1949年廃刊）の写真部主任を務める。1950年代以降、カメラ雑誌を中心に女性のポートレートや東京の下町、歌舞伎舞台のスナップ、ヨーロッパ外遊（1954、55、60）の折に撮影した作品などを多数発表。52年から71年まで、21回にわたって東北・秋田の人々の暮らしを撮り続けたシリーズ「秋田」は、戦後における代表作としてとくに名高い。東京を中心に、都会の路上でのスナップ撮影を意欲的に晩年まで続け、「街角で」と題するシリーズとして71年から74年まで『アサヒカメラ』誌に断続的に連載。74年心筋梗塞のため72歳で没。翌年その業績を記念して、朝日新聞社が新人写真家を対象とする「木村伊兵衛写真賞」を創設した。

［大日方欣一］

『『小型カメラの写し方・使ひ方』（『写真実技大講座』第2巻・1937・玄光社）』▽『『JAPAN THROUGH A LEICA』（1938・三省堂）』▽『『王道楽土』（1943・アルス）』▽『『木村伊兵衛傑作写真集』（1954・朝日新聞社）』▽『『木村伊兵衛外遊写真集』（1955・朝日新聞社）』▽『『ヨーロッパの印象』（1956・朝日新聞社）』▽『『木村伊兵衛写真集　パリ』（1974・のら社）』▽『『ニコンサロンブックス4　秋田』（1978・ニッコールクラブ）』▽『『木村伊兵衛名作全集』全3巻（1979・世界文化社）』▽『『木村伊兵衛写真全集昭和時代』全4巻（1984・筑摩書房）』▽『『日本の写真家8　木村伊兵衛』（1998・岩波書店）』▽『『定本　木村伊兵衛』（2002・朝日新聞社）』