Shisei Kuwabara

over a period of some forty years.

Kuwabara was born — as Fumiaki Kuwabara (nihongo2|桑原史成, "Kuwabara Fumiaki") — in the village of Kibe (now part of Tsuwano), Shimane Prefecture, Japan. [Birthday: "Works by 25 Photographers in their 20s" (catalogue of an exhibition held at Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts in 1995), p. 89. Place of birth and original name: ja icon [http://www.tsuwano.ne.jp/town/kuwabara_photo/shisei.html CV] . Much other information below comes from one or other of these sources.] In 1960 he graduated from the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Tokyo Photo School (later Tokyo College of Photography).

In the same year Kuwabara started work as a freelance photographer. With a letter of introduction from a journalist with "Shūkan Asahi" magazine, he visited the director of Minamata Municipal Hospital, Dr Noboru Ōhashi, in July, to ask for permission to photograph. Ōhashi gave him permission for long-term coverage. [Start at Minamata: "Works by 25 Photographers", pp. 82–3. This catalogue also presents examples of his early work in Minamata, and a potted CV.]

Kuwabara's photographs of Minamata were shown in his first solo exhibition, "Minamata-byō" (Minamata disease), at the Fuji Photo Salon in Tokyo in September 1962. This won the newcomers' award of the Japan Photo Critics Association. [JPCA award: "25 Photographers", p. 89.]

Kuwabara's works have also won an award from Kodansha in 1965, the Photographic Society of Japan's Annual Award in 1971, and the Ina Nobuo Award in 1982. [Kōdansha award: ja icon [http://www.kodansha.co.jp/award/archive/syasin.html nihongo2|講談社出版文化賞【写真賞】 (過去の受賞者一覧)] (list of award winners). PSJ award: ja icon [http://www.psj.or.jp/psjaward/all.html 日本写真協会 過去の受賞者一覧] (PSJ, list of past award-winners). Ina Nobuo Award: ja icon [http://www.nikon-image.com/jpn/activity/salon/awards/ina/winners/07.htm nihongo2|7回（1982年）伊奈信男賞] (announcement of the 7th Ina Nobuo Award to Shinzō Hanabusa and Kuwabara).] Since 1997, Tsuwano has had a gallery largely devoted to Kuwabara's work. Until March 2004, this was called the Tsuwano Documentary Photograph Gallery; it was then renamed the Shisei Kuwabara Photographics Museum.

Notes

Books by Kuwabara

*"Shashin-shū Minamata-byō" (nihongo2|写真集 水俣病, "Minamata Desease" [sic] ). Tokyo: San'ichi Shobō, 1965.
*"Shashin-kiroku Minamata-byō 1960–1970" (nihongo2|写真記録 水俣病 1960–1970, "Documentary: Minamata disease"). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbun, 1970.
*"Seikatsusha gunzō" (nihongo2|生活者群像, "Collage of living people"). Tokyo: San'ichi Shobō, 1980.
*"Minamata Kankoku Betonamu" (nihongo2|水俣・韓国・ベトナム). Tokyo: Banseisha, 1982.
*"Tōji no sato Kōrai, Richō" (nihongo2|陶磁の里 高麗・李朝). Tokyo: Iwanami, 1984.
*"Kōrai, Richō gendai tōjisen" (nihongo2|高麗・李朝現代陶磁撰). Tokyo: Mainichi Shinbun, 1985.
*"Kankoku genkei" (nihongo2|韓国原影, "Korea's original scenes"). Tokyo: San'ichi Shobō, 1986.
*"Minamata" (nihongo2|水俣}, "Minamata"). Komichi Shobō, 1986.
*"Hōdōshashinka" (nihongo2|報道写真家, "Documentary photographer"). Tokyo: Iwanami, 1989.
*"Kankoku shinjō toro" (nihongo2|韓国真情吐露, "Expressing genuine sentiments about Korea"). Tokyo: Ōtsuki, 1990. ISBN 4-272-62013-4
*"Yameru taikoku Roshia" (nihongo2|病める大国 ロシア, "Russia, a sick great nation"). Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1995. ISBN 4-582-27731-4
*"Kuwabara Shisei / Minamata" (nihongo2|桑原史成/水俣). Tokyo: Nihon Tosho Sentā, 1996. ISBN 4-8205-7297-0 Black and white photographs, in one volume (sold separately) of a multivolume set about pollution in Japan. In Japanese only.
*"Kuwabara Shisei shashin zenshū" (nihongo2|桑原史成写真全集, "The Complete Works of Kuwabara, Shinsei".) Tokyo: Kusa-no-Ne. Each of these four volumes contains explanatory text in English as well as Japanese.
**1. "Minamata" (nihongo2|水俣, "Minamata"). 2004. ISBN 4-87648-141-5
**2. "Kankoku" (nihongo2|韓国, "South Korea"). 1998. ISBN 4-87648-142-3
**3. "Chikuhō/Okinawa" (nihongo2|筑豊/沖縄, "Chikuho/Okinawa"). 2004. ISBN 4-87648-143-1 The first half is about the declining coalmines of Chikuho.
**4. "Betonamu" (nihongo2|ベトナム, "Vietnam"). 1999. ISBN 4-87648-144-X
*"Imujin-gan: Kaima-mita Kita Chōsen" (nihongo2|イムジンガン：垣間見た北朝鮮, "Imjin-gang: Glimpses of North Korea"). Tokyo: Kusa-no-Ne, 2003. ISBN 4-87648-189-X Black and white photographs of North Korea. In Japanese only.

Other books with works by Kuwabara

*"Nihon shashin no tenkan: 1960 nendai no hyōgen" (nihongo2|日本写真の転換：1960時代の表現) / "Innovation in Japanese Photography in the 1960s." Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 1991. Exhibition catalogue, text in Japanese and English. Pp. 104–113 are devoted to Kuwabara's photographs of Minamata.

External links

*ja icon [http://www.kmopa.com/minamata/minamata.htm Minamata exhibition notice] : contains some photographs
* [http://kn.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2003/02/08/200302080058.asp Tragedy to Triumph] : an article about an exhibition in Seoul of Kuwabara's photographs of South Korea
*ja icon [http://www.town.tsuwano.lg.jp/kuwabara_photo/index.html Shisei Kuwabara Photographics Museum]
* [http://photojpn.org/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=117 Short CV]