Father's Diary

"Father's Diary," a collection of works by Japanese photographer Junichi Ota. This work was created based on the diary that the author's father kept daily for about 20 years, from when his wife passed away and he began living alone until he died at the age of 87. In the meticulous daily records, written in small, dense letters reflecting his fastidious personality, ordinary events such as meals and television reviews are interspersed with anxieties about aging and a heartfelt desire to live without burdening anyone.

Eventually, his father suffered from dementia and entered a nursing home. Around that time, his neatly kept diary gradually became disordered, the handwriting deteriorated, the same words were repeated persistently, and traces of pen pressure and blank spaces appeared on the pages. Ota photographed these changing diary pages, quietly observing the process by which a person's memory and consciousness wavered and eventually disappeared.

This book is not merely a record or a document, but a collection of works that re-examines fundamental themes such as writing, the body, time, and death through photography. It blurs the boundaries between reading and seeing, elevating a family's private memories into a universal story of aging. It has garnered deep empathy and high praise, and is also known as a recipient of the Ina Nobuo Award.

How do people age, what do they lose, and yet still leave traces of life—this quiet question resonates in one's heart with every turning page.

●34th (2009) Ina Nobuo Award winning work

[Title] Father's Diary
[Publisher] Brain Center
[Publication Date] March 21, 2010 (First Edition)
[Number of Pages] 117 pages
[Size] Approx. 216*200*15mm / 470g
[Format] Softcover
[Language] Japanese
[Title Reading] Chichi no Nikki
[Author/Editor, etc.] Junichi Ota/Author, Kazushi Suzuki/Book Design
[Printing] Fukuin/Printing and Binding
[ISBN] 9784833905442
[Condition] Used [4] Fair to Below Fair (Body: Bottom stain, slight top stain
[Accessories] Obi, dedication paper (with author's seal)
[Featured in] -
[Related Exhibition] 2009, Ginza Nikon Salon (Tokyo)

Junichi Ota (1950-)

Born in Nara Prefecture in 1950. Photographer.

He withdrew from Waseda University's School of Political Science and Economics in 1971 and graduated from Osaka School of Photography in 1978. After working as a camera operator for an evening newspaper, he began working as a freelance photographer in 1982. He has consistently covered themes rooted in society and local communities, earning high acclaim as a representative artist in the field of Japanese documentary photography.

He has received awards such as the Shashin no Kai Award and the Photographic Society of Japan's Artist Award.

His major photo collections include "Women of Ikaino" (Shobunsha), "Father's Diary" (Brain Center), "Remaining Houses: Memories of Family" (Kaifusha), and "Higataki" (Kaifusha). His books include "I'm Going to Be a Photographer!" (Iwanami Shoten) and "The Era of Photographer Seiryu Inoue" (Brain Center).

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