It’s said that Japan’s five ports that opened to the West in the late 19th century are the birthplaces of Japanese photography culture. They include Hakodate, Yokohama, Niigata, Kobe, and Nagasaki. This past November 17th to the 19th, Hakodate City in Hokkaido held an exhibit and discussion session called Power of Photos. More specifically, Power of Photos involved a display of two photographers’ precious photos together, while the discussion session presented the panelists’ unfiltered thoughts about the various photos. Attendees thus experienced a kind of authenticity. The key point of this event was that it was held in Hakodate, the…
Author: Saito Hisao
Last month I shot maedori (pre-wedding photos) for my son’s upcoming wedding. His bride-to-be is from Akita. Her parents there were unable to come down to join us for the shooting. There was a time when I thought it would be cool to be the father of the bride. One day, you entrust another man with the daughter that you raised with so much love. I had thought it would be great to experience such a bittersweet moment. But when I went to Akita to meet my soon to be daughter-in-law’s parents and saw the look in her father’s eyes…
We have a new employee named Ugi who is half-Korean, half-Japanese. During her interview last year, when I looked at these photographs, I felt that the source of her evident strength lies here. A nuclear family is one in which you have a husband and wife, and their unmarried children. At least that’s how it’s defined. With Japan’s rapid economic growth after WWII, people flocked to major cities, resulting in the decline of large, three-generation families residing together, and the rise of nuclear families. Our employee was raised in a family surrounded by a Korean mother, a Korean uncle, a…
When you hear, “That’s a great photo,” what comes to mind? A photo that was beautifully taken? One that strikes you as cool? One with flair? Let me share with you an anecdote involving a little girl. A girl wearing Coke-bottle glasses and braces on her teeth generally wouldn’t be called “cute” or “beautiful” in flattery. But this girl’s eyes were always twinkling, and she never failed to have a smile. Hence, she was quite adorable. One day, this girl showed me a photo on a sideboard. It was a portrait of a very beautiful young woman. “This is a…
There’s a term called anchoring sometimes used to mean “the development of a process in which the emergence of particular emotions and responses derive from the five senses.” One example of this would be a certain scent that reminds you of that moment in your life. As photographers, it would be great if the photos we took were anchoring phenomena linking the subject to the viewer. Consider now a photo chosen by the president of a brand new company when creating his profile. After ten years the number of employees has grown, sales have risen, and the company has…
The other day, I had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of a friend’s son. It was a traditional Shinto ceremony held at Iseyama Kotaijingu. This historic shrine pays homage to the main guardian deity of Yokohama. Japanese people incorporate an interesting mix of religions in their lives. When a child is born, they take their newborn to a shrine for their first shrine visit, called omiya mairi. For wedding ceremonies it is common to go to a church. Funerals are generally held at Buddhist temples. Worldwide, this is quite rare. In Japan, however, this is the norm, and in…
On August 22, 28, and 29, we held a photo session for important “moments” by Herbie Yamaguchi. The goal was to “record the moments”, which is part of the essence of photography. This photo session became a reality only through the cooperation of Rose Hotel Yokohama, Yokohama Shashinkan, and the cameraman/promoter himself, Herbie Yamaguchi. Previously in this column I have described Yamaguchi’s unique approach of “wishing the subject of his photo happiness after each shot”. This session was for those who could not record their “moments” due to complications arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. We asked participants to write to…
Noge Daidogei (street performance fest) 2021 was held on June 20th in Yokohama Nigiwai-za. The event was attended by a live audience taking proper precautions due to the pandemic. An NHK crew was also on hand to film the event. I’m glad to report that it was a huge success. I have something that I would like everyone to know about the Noge Daidogei planning committee. They assert that they are committed to holding the event for “the people who are truly looking forward to it”. Some might say, “That’s par for the course, no?” But it’s this basic premise…
Nowadays, the excuse for almost everything is “due to Corona…” It has become a hackneyed phrase. When someone is late for a meeting… “I wasn’t able to catch a taxi this morning because of all the pandemic commotion” or “I wasn’t able to reserve a cab due to Corona.” For either, you are left with only the response, “But of course.” Recently on a rainy day at the location of our shoot, some of my assistants were chatting while nibbling on Pocky through the gaps in their masks. The conversation went something like this: “Due to Corona, I have spent…
I’m sitting inside watching the snow fall outside my window in Tadami-machi, Fukushima. In Yokohama, I don’t recall it snowing at all this season. That fact is a little disappointing for me since I really love snow. When I have photo shoots in the northern area, I often think to myself, “This is going to be tough,” but when I arrive, the feeling fades and I actually get very excited. Despite the fact that it was rather late at night when I arrived in Tadami-machi, the lodge owner and his family waited for me with dinner. When I saw their…