Shinzo Fukuhara

Photographer. Born in Tokyo. Entrepreneur who served as the first president of the cosmetics company Shiseido. His father, Arinobu (1848-1924), ran the Shiseido Pharmacy, the predecessor of the current Shiseido, in Ginza, Tokyo. Shinzo studied Japanese painting, watercolors and oil painting from his early teens, and joined the amateur photography group Toyo Shashin-kai at the age of 14. In 1906 (Meiji 39), he graduated from the Department of Pharmacy at Chiba Medical College (now Chiba University). In 1908, he went to the United States and entered the School of Pharmacy at Columbia University. After graduating from the university in 1910, he worked at a drugstore and a cosmetics manufacturing company in New York, and in 1912, he decided to return to Japan, traveling to Europe on the way. While staying in Paris, he interacted with painter Kawashima Riichiro and others, and was inspired by contemporary Western art, taking snapshots of cityscapes with a long focal length lens, which would later be published as Paris and the Seine (1923). After returning to Japan, he was put in charge of the management of the Shiseido Pharmacy, and in 1916 (Taisho 5), he opened the Shiseido Cosmetics Department in Takekawa-cho, Kyobashi Ward (now Ginza 7-chome, Chuo Ward). He personally worked on everything from product development to the design of the show windows and the "Hanatsubaki" trademark.

In 1921, he founded the Shashin Geijutsu-sha with his brother Roso (1892-1946) and music critic Otaguro Motoo (1893-1979) to promote new photographic expression, and the following year launched the magazine Shashin Geijutsu (Photographic Art) (until 1923). He developed the photographic aesthetics of "light and its tones" in both theory and practice, which aimed to capture the nature of light in photographic prints as subtle shades of color, and to achieve a state of sensory and psychological fusion with nature. His ideas had a wide influence on Japanese amateur photographers aspiring to artistic expression throughout the 1920s. In 1925, he participated in the establishment of the artistic photography organization Japan Photography Association, and became its first chairman. In 1927 (Showa 2), Shiseido became a joint-stock company and he became its president and director.

As a photographer, Fukuhara thoroughly experimented with soft-focus depictions in his first collection, Paris and the Seine, establishing his own style of capturing a world of light and shadow with bold compositions and angles, but later moved toward a style that exuded a simpler, more tranquil, oriental view of nature, using waterside and rural landscapes from all over Japan and China's West Lake region as his subject matter. In 1936, he traveled to Oahu, Hawaii, and compiled his impressions in the collection Hawaii Landscapes (1937). After this, his eyesight deteriorated due to cataracts, but he continued to teach younger members of the Japan Photography Society until his later years.

[Kinichi Ohirakata]

"Paris and the Seine" and "Fukuhara Shinzo Photography Collection: Light and Its Tones" (both 1923, Photographic Art Publishing)" ▽ "West Lake Landscape" (1931, Japan Photographic Society) ▽ "Matsue Landscape" (1935, Japan Photographic Society) ▽ "Hawaii Landscape" (1937, Japan Photographic Society) ▽ "Fukuhara Shinzo Essays: Talking about Photography" (1943, Musashi Shobo) ▽ "Nikon Salon Books 3: Fukuhara Shinzo and Fukuhara Roso Photography Collection: Light and Its Tones" (1977, Nikkor Club) ▽ "Japanese Photographers 3: Fukuhara Shinzo and Fukuhara Roso" (1997, Iwanami Shoten) ▽ "Light and Its Tones: Fukuhara Shinzo and Fukuhara Roso Photography Collection 1913-1941" (Catalogue, 1992, Watari Museum of Contemporary Art) "Poetic Feelings of Light - The World of Shinzo Fukuhara" (Catalogue, 1994, Shiseido Gallery)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

写真家。東京生まれ。化粧品会社資生堂の初代社長を務めた企業家でもある。父有信(ありのぶ)（1848―1924）は東京・銀座で現資生堂の前身にあたる資生堂薬局を経営。信三は10代前半から日本画や水彩画・油絵を学び、14歳でアマチュア写真団体東洋写真会に入会。1906年（明治39）、千葉医学専門学校（現千葉大学）薬学科を卒業。08年渡米し、コロンビア大学薬学部に入学。10年に同大学卒業後、ニューヨークのドラッグストアや化粧品製造会社で働き、12年帰国を決め、その途中ヨーロッパへ渡る。滞在先のパリで画家川島理一郎らと交流、同時代の西欧美術から刺激を受けつつ、後に『巴里とセイヌ』（1923）として発表される長焦点レンズによる都市光景のスナップを撮影する。帰国後、資生堂薬局の経営をまかされ、16年（大正5）に京橋区竹川町（現中央区銀座7丁目）で資生堂化粧品部を開店。商品開発からショーウィンドーや商標「花椿(はなつばき)」のデザインまでを自ら手がけた。

　21年、弟の路草(ろそう)（1892―1946）、音楽評論家太田黒(おおたぐろ)元雄（1893―1979）らと新しい写真表現の推進をめざして写真芸術社を設立し、翌年に雑誌『写真芸術』を創刊（～1923）。自然のなかの光線のありようを色調の濃淡（調子）として精妙に写真印画に定着し、自然との感覚的・心理的な融合の境地を求めようとする「光と其(その)諧調」の写真美学を理論と実作の両面で展開。その主張は1920年代を通じ、芸術的表現を志向する日本のアマチュア写真家たちに広く影響を与えた。25年、芸術写真団体日本写真会の設立に参加し、初代会長となる。また27年（昭和2）、資生堂が株式会社となり取締役社長に就任した。

　写真家としての福原は、第一作品集『巴里とセイヌ』でソフトフォーカスによる描写を徹底して試み、大胆な構図やアングルで光と影の織りなす世界をとらえる独自のスタイルを確立したが、その後は、日本各地や中国の西湖(せいこ)地方などの水辺や田園の風景を題材として、よりシンプルで静謐な、東洋的な自然観を滲ませた作風へと向かった。36年ハワイのオアフ島を旅行し、その印象を作品集『布哇(ハワイ)風景』（1937）にまとめて以降、白内障のため視力が低下するが、日本写真会の後進メンバーの指導を晩年まで続けた。

［大日方欣一］

『『巴里とセイヌ』『福原信三写真画集　光と其諧調』（ともに1923・写真芸術社）』▽『『西湖風景』（1931・日本写真会）』▽『『松江風景』（1935・日本写真会）』▽『『布哇風景』（1937・日本写真会）』▽『『福原信三随筆　写真を語る』（1943・武蔵書房）』▽『『ニコンサロンブックス3　福原信三・福原路草写真集　光と其諧調』（1977・ニッコールクラブ）』▽『『日本の写真家3　福原信三と福原路草』（1997・岩波書店）』▽『「光とその諧調　福原信三・福原路草写真集　1913―1941」（カタログ。1992・ワタリウム美術館）』▽『「光の詩情――福原信三の世界」（カタログ。1994・資生堂ギャラリー）』

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