Photo Collection: Children's Folklore

Hamaya, who has painstakingly documented the climate and folklore of postwar Japan, has compiled this book on the themes of "four seasons" and "children" from various parts of Japan. Born and raised in Tokyo, Hamaya experienced the modernization of the city firsthand. Since the 1940s, he has traveled to farming and fishing villages along the Sea of ​​Japan coast, photographing the lives of people living in harsh natural environments. This book is an extension of that line, capturing children playing, working, and standing in the landscapes of each region, such as beaches, festivals, fields, and alleys in snowy regions.

The book is mainly composed of black and white photographs, with some color plates included. The climate and the body, the memories of the land and the time of growth quietly intersect.
This collection of works was published in the same vein as Snow Country (1956), The Backside of Japan (1957), The China I've Seen, and The Homeland of Poetry (1958), and is also included in The Japanese Photobook 1912–1990 ( Steidl, 2017) , a document that provides an overview of the history of photography in Japan.

[Title] Children in Japan
[Publisher] Chuokoron-Shinsha
[Date of publication] 1959
[Number of pages] Unpaginated
[Size] 273*256*26mm, 1083g
[Format] Hardcover
[Language] Japanese
[Title reading] Kodomofuki
[Author/Editor, etc.] Hiroshi Hamaya/Author
[printing]
[ISBN] None
[Condition] Used [ 6 ] Above average to average (box faded)
[Accessories] Box, separate English translation included
[Featured book] The Japanese Photobook 1912–1990 ( Steidl, 2017)
[Related Exhibitions]

Hiroshi Hamaya (1915-1999)

Born on March 28, 1915 in Shitaya Ward, Tokyo.
He became interested in photography while studying at Kanto Commercial School, and after graduating he worked in aerial photography. He joined Oriental Photography in 1933 and went freelance in 1937. Before the war he captured urban Tokyo with a modern sensibility, but a visit to Niigata in 1939 led him to turn to folklore studies. From then on, he visited farming and fishing villages along the Sea of ​​Japan coast, documenting the climate and the lives of the people over a long period of time.
After the war, he continued to create works based in Takada, Niigata, and published Snow Country in 1956 and Backside of Japan in 1957. He won the Mainichi Publishing Culture Award for Backside of Japan. In 1960, he became the first Asian to become a member of Magnum Photos, and he covered the US-Japan Security Treaty protests and photographed nature around the world. In 1986, he received the ICP Master of Photography Award, and in 1987, he became the first Japanese photographer to receive the Hasselblad International Photography Award. He developed work that crossed the boundaries of reporting and documentary, with a focus on Japanese climate and folklore.
Died on March 6, 1999.

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