Genzo Kitazumi
Encyclopedia
was an influential Japan
ese photographer. Kitazumi's work is characterized by manipulation of photographic process for aesthetic rather than representational or documentary effect. His pre-war work features the use of lith
print process and solarization
. Photogram
s feature frequently in his post-war work. Kitazumi is also noted for his pioneering work in the commercial use of color photographic processing
and printing in Japan.
. He went to Keio
school of commerce but dropped out.
In 1920, Kitazumi was given a job as a temporary photographic assistant for Toshimo Mitsumura at the newly established Mitsumura Printing Company in Shibuya Kamihara-chō, Tokyo. In his memoirs, he wrote that his ambition during this period was to become a painter and that he was not interested in long-term employment at Mitsumura. Toshimo Mitsumura was one of the early pioneers of photography in Japan and had a relationship with the Army and Naval Ministries dating back to the Russo-Japanese War. Kitazumi was to continue working for Mitsumura until 1945.
Kitazumi's early photographic assignments included the trips to Karafuto
(Sakhalin
) and Kŭmgangsan
(now in North Korea). No photographs from these assignments have been identified, however.
In 1927, he was given an assignment to cover the Emperor's visit to the Ogasawara islands. Twenty-eight frames from this assignment were featured in the magazine Kaigun (Navy), published by Mitsumura Printing in September 1927. Two of the frames featured were hand-colored. Although the magazine frequently featured hand-colored prints, this is the first known instance in which color was used in Kitazumi's photographs.
In 1932, Kitazumi took a series of portraits depicting the "Noh
" actor, Kanze Sakon 24th in his various stage costumes. Each portrait was composed from up to eight frames to create hand-colored plates for a four-color separation process with additional masking templates prepared to apply gold and silver details. This was published in 20 volumes containing 60 portraits over a period of two years as Noh Sugata .
In 1939, Mitsumura imported a Bermpohl Naturfarbenkamera (tricolor camera) from Germany and Kitazumi was given the task of exploring its use as a part of the color printing process. In the years leading up to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, Mitsumura imported two additional tricolor cameras, National Photocolor Lerochrome and Devin Tricolor, from the US. These cameras were used by Mitsumura to develop a photographic printing process which they named the Mitsumura-Bermpohl Process (MBP).
and Iwata Nakayama
.)
Despite the use of hand-colored photographs and his pioneering work in color for his professional work, Kitazumi's submissions to Kokugakai Arts Association were all monochrome. Furthermore, in contrast to most of his contemporaries, his prints are characteristically devoid of tonal gradation. In his memoirs, he wrote that this was in response to Shinzō Fukuhara
's "Hikari to Sono Kaichō" (translated as "Light and its Harmony"), which promoted the beauty of tonal gradations (kaichō) and was a major influence on pre-war Japanese photographers.
attached to the military (gun-zoku). During this assignment he visited French Indochina, Thailand, Malaya, Dutch East Indies and the Philippines.
After returning to Japan in late December 1942, 150 photographs from the assignment were printed in B2 and B4 sizes and exhibited one frame at a time in the shop windows of Tokyo's Ginza
district in early 1943. The exhibition subsequently toured the country and was also shown in Karafuto (Sakhalin), Korea, Taiwan and Manchuria.
In view of the fact that the assignment was authorised by and had the backing of the authorities, the photographs from South East Asia are notable for the lack of subject matter with obvious propaganda value. Instead, the focus is on the people and culture of the places that he visited. This is in contrast to the works of other photographers working for the military establishment, such as that of Ihei Kimura
in Front magazine.
bombing of Tokyo. The destruction of the archive resulted in the scarcity of photographic record of Kitazumi's work from before 1945.
Immediately after the war, Kitazumi took a leading role in the re-establishment of the Photographic Division of Kokugakai Arts Association. In 1944, the activities of the Photographic Division had been curtailed due to the war effort. By 1945 no exhibition space could be found for the main Kokugakai exhibition due to air raid damage. It was not until 1947 that the Photography Division resumed its annual exhibition. The members of the selection panel were Kitazumi, Ihei Kimura
, Iwata Nakayama
and Keizō Nagahama.
In 1960, Kitazumi established Sōsaku Inga Kai , an association of artists promoting the process of photogram
s. In 1969, the association held a group exhibition at Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art.
In his own words, Genzo Kitazumi was "a failed painter who ended up as a deconstructed photographer". Indeed his yearly submissions to the Arts Association between 1939 and the late seventies could not easily be classified. He rarely published works of straight photography
, preferring instead to manipulate the images in the darkroom, and, in his latter years, dispensing with the use of the camera altogether. In the hard outlines of monochromatic images without tonal gradations, it is possible to see a link between his pre-war photographs and post-war photograms.
Kitazumi died in Tokyo on 12 March 1982.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese photographer. Kitazumi's work is characterized by manipulation of photographic process for aesthetic rather than representational or documentary effect. His pre-war work features the use of lith
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
print process and solarization
Solarisation
Solarisation is a phenomenon in photography in which the image recorded on a negative or on a photographic print is wholly or partially reversed in tone. Dark areas appear light or light areas appear dark...
. Photogram
Photogram
A photogram is a photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a photo-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. The result is a negative shadow image varying in tone, depending on the transparency of the objects used...
s feature frequently in his post-war work. Kitazumi is also noted for his pioneering work in the commercial use of color photographic processing
Photographic processing
Photographic processing is the chemical means by which photographic film and paper is treated after photographic exposure to produce a negative or positive image...
and printing in Japan.
Pre-war career
Kitazumi was born on 18 December 1898 in ShizuokaShizuoka Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region on Honshu island. The capital is the city of Shizuoka.- History :Shizuoka prefecture was formed from the former Tōtōmi, Suruga and Izu provinces.The area was the home of the first Tokugawa Shogun...
. He went to Keio
Keio University
,abbreviated as Keio or Keidai , is a Japanese university located in Minato, Tokyo. It is known as the oldest institute of higher education in Japan. Founder Fukuzawa Yukichi originally established it as a school for Western studies in 1858 in Edo . It has eleven campuses in Tokyo and Kanagawa...
school of commerce but dropped out.
In 1920, Kitazumi was given a job as a temporary photographic assistant for Toshimo Mitsumura at the newly established Mitsumura Printing Company in Shibuya Kamihara-chō, Tokyo. In his memoirs, he wrote that his ambition during this period was to become a painter and that he was not interested in long-term employment at Mitsumura. Toshimo Mitsumura was one of the early pioneers of photography in Japan and had a relationship with the Army and Naval Ministries dating back to the Russo-Japanese War. Kitazumi was to continue working for Mitsumura until 1945.
Kitazumi's early photographic assignments included the trips to Karafuto
Karafuto Prefecture
, commonly called South Sakhalin, was the Japanese administrative division corresponding to Japanese territory on Sakhalin from 1905 to 1945. Through the Treaty of Portsmouth, the portion of Sakhalin south of 50°N became a colony of Japan in 1905...
(Sakhalin
Sakhalin
Sakhalin or Saghalien, is a large island in the North Pacific, lying between 45°50' and 54°24' N.It is part of Russia, and is Russia's largest island, and is administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast...
) and Kŭmgangsan
Kumgangsan
Kŭmgangsan , Geumgangsan, or Mount Geumgang is a -high mountain in Kangwon-do, North Korea. Its name means "a firm heart in the face of truth". It is about 50 km away from South Korea's Sokcho in Gangwon-do. It is one of the best-known mountains in North Korea...
(now in North Korea). No photographs from these assignments have been identified, however.
In 1927, he was given an assignment to cover the Emperor's visit to the Ogasawara islands. Twenty-eight frames from this assignment were featured in the magazine Kaigun (Navy), published by Mitsumura Printing in September 1927. Two of the frames featured were hand-colored. Although the magazine frequently featured hand-colored prints, this is the first known instance in which color was used in Kitazumi's photographs.
In 1932, Kitazumi took a series of portraits depicting the "Noh
Noh
, or - derived from the Sino-Japanese word for "skill" or "talent" - is a major form of classical Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Many characters are masked, with men playing male and female roles. Traditionally, a Noh "performance day" lasts all day and...
" actor, Kanze Sakon 24th in his various stage costumes. Each portrait was composed from up to eight frames to create hand-colored plates for a four-color separation process with additional masking templates prepared to apply gold and silver details. This was published in 20 volumes containing 60 portraits over a period of two years as Noh Sugata .
In 1939, Mitsumura imported a Bermpohl Naturfarbenkamera (tricolor camera) from Germany and Kitazumi was given the task of exploring its use as a part of the color printing process. In the years leading up to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, Mitsumura imported two additional tricolor cameras, National Photocolor Lerochrome and Devin Tricolor, from the US. These cameras were used by Mitsumura to develop a photographic printing process which they named the Mitsumura-Bermpohl Process (MBP).
Kokugakai
In 1940, Kitazumi was awarded the prestigious Kokugakai Arts Association, Photography Award for his submissions "Sazanami", "Kusamura" and "Nagare". (In the same year, Kokugakai Arts Association members' commendations were given to Ihei KimuraIhei Kimura
Born on 12 December 1901 in Shitaya-ku , Tokyo, Kimura started taking photographs when very young but his interest intensified when he was around 20 and living in Tainan, Taiwan, where he was working for a sugar wholesaler. He opened a photographic studio in Nippori, Tokyo in 1924...
and Iwata Nakayama
Iwata Nakayama
was a renowned Japanese photographer.-Biography:He was born in Yanagawa, in Fukuoka. His father was an inventor who had a patent of a fire extingusher in Japan. Iwata migrated to Tokyo and was educated in a private school Kyohoku-Chugakkou. After graduated that school, he entered Tokyo University...
.)
Despite the use of hand-colored photographs and his pioneering work in color for his professional work, Kitazumi's submissions to Kokugakai Arts Association were all monochrome. Furthermore, in contrast to most of his contemporaries, his prints are characteristically devoid of tonal gradation. In his memoirs, he wrote that this was in response to Shinzō Fukuhara
Shinzo Fukuhara
was a renowned Japanese photographer.He was born in Kyōbashi-ku, Tokyo, on 25 July 1883, as the fourth son of Arinobu Fukuhara , the head of Apothecary Shiseidō and Toku Fukuhara . The third brother predeceased his birth, so he was named and treated as the third son...
's "Hikari to Sono Kaichō" (translated as "Light and its Harmony"), which promoted the beauty of tonal gradations (kaichō) and was a major influence on pre-war Japanese photographers.
South-East Asia assignment
In July 1942, Genzo Kitazumi embarked on an assignment that took him around South East Asia. The aim was to capture in color the scenes from the occupied territories as well as Thailand. With his connections in the Army and Naval Ministries, Toshimo Mitsumura, his employer, ensured that the assignment had the backing of the authorities. For the purpose of the assignment, the team members were designated as employees of Tokyo Nichi Nichi ShinbunTokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun
The Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun was a newspaper printed in Tokyo, Japan from 1872 to 1943.In 1875, the company began the world's first newspaper delivery service....
attached to the military (gun-zoku). During this assignment he visited French Indochina, Thailand, Malaya, Dutch East Indies and the Philippines.
After returning to Japan in late December 1942, 150 photographs from the assignment were printed in B2 and B4 sizes and exhibited one frame at a time in the shop windows of Tokyo's Ginza
Ginza
is a district of Chūō, Tokyo, located south of Yaesu and Kyōbashi, west of Tsukiji, east of Yūrakuchō and Uchisaiwaichō, and north of Shinbashi.It is known as an upscale area of Tokyo with numerous department stores, boutiques, restaurants and coffeehouses. Ginza is recognized as one of the most...
district in early 1943. The exhibition subsequently toured the country and was also shown in Karafuto (Sakhalin), Korea, Taiwan and Manchuria.
In view of the fact that the assignment was authorised by and had the backing of the authorities, the photographs from South East Asia are notable for the lack of subject matter with obvious propaganda value. Instead, the focus is on the people and culture of the places that he visited. This is in contrast to the works of other photographers working for the military establishment, such as that of Ihei Kimura
Ihei Kimura
Born on 12 December 1901 in Shitaya-ku , Tokyo, Kimura started taking photographs when very young but his interest intensified when he was around 20 and living in Tainan, Taiwan, where he was working for a sugar wholesaler. He opened a photographic studio in Nippori, Tokyo in 1924...
in Front magazine.
Post-war achievements
On 25 May 1945, Kitazumi's house, including his photographic archive, was destroyed in the B-29B-29 Superfortress
The B-29 Superfortress is a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing that was flown primarily by the United States Air Forces in late-World War II and through the Korean War. The B-29 was one of the largest aircraft to see service during World War II...
bombing of Tokyo. The destruction of the archive resulted in the scarcity of photographic record of Kitazumi's work from before 1945.
Immediately after the war, Kitazumi took a leading role in the re-establishment of the Photographic Division of Kokugakai Arts Association. In 1944, the activities of the Photographic Division had been curtailed due to the war effort. By 1945 no exhibition space could be found for the main Kokugakai exhibition due to air raid damage. It was not until 1947 that the Photography Division resumed its annual exhibition. The members of the selection panel were Kitazumi, Ihei Kimura
Ihei Kimura
Born on 12 December 1901 in Shitaya-ku , Tokyo, Kimura started taking photographs when very young but his interest intensified when he was around 20 and living in Tainan, Taiwan, where he was working for a sugar wholesaler. He opened a photographic studio in Nippori, Tokyo in 1924...
, Iwata Nakayama
Iwata Nakayama
was a renowned Japanese photographer.-Biography:He was born in Yanagawa, in Fukuoka. His father was an inventor who had a patent of a fire extingusher in Japan. Iwata migrated to Tokyo and was educated in a private school Kyohoku-Chugakkou. After graduated that school, he entered Tokyo University...
and Keizō Nagahama.
In 1960, Kitazumi established Sōsaku Inga Kai , an association of artists promoting the process of photogram
Photogram
A photogram is a photographic image made without a camera by placing objects directly onto the surface of a photo-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. The result is a negative shadow image varying in tone, depending on the transparency of the objects used...
s. In 1969, the association held a group exhibition at Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art.
In his own words, Genzo Kitazumi was "a failed painter who ended up as a deconstructed photographer". Indeed his yearly submissions to the Arts Association between 1939 and the late seventies could not easily be classified. He rarely published works of straight photography
Straight photography
Pure photography or straight photography refers to photography that attempts to depict a scene as realistically and objectively as permitted by the medium, renouncing the use of manipulation....
, preferring instead to manipulate the images in the darkroom, and, in his latter years, dispensing with the use of the camera altogether. In the hard outlines of monochromatic images without tonal gradations, it is possible to see a link between his pre-war photographs and post-war photograms.
Kitazumi died in Tokyo on 12 March 1982.
List of known works
| Year | Title | Format | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1940 | (Wavelets) | Photograph | Unknown |
| 1940–1945 | (Fishing Net 1) | Photograph, 40.0 × 54.4 cm | Unknown |
| 1940–1945 | (Fishing Net 2) | Photograph, 40.0 × 54.4 cm | Unknown |
| 1965 | (Fossil) | Photogram, 44.6 × 37.0 cm | Yokohama Museum of Art Yokohama Museum of Art Yokohama Museum of Art , founded in 1989, is located in the futuristic Minato Mirai 21 district of Yokohama city next to the Yokohama Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan.-The collections:... |
| 1965 | (Little Fish) | Photogram, 44.6 × 37.0 cm | Yokohama Museum of Art |
| 百舌自身 (Shrike) | Photogram, 44.5 × 37.0 cm | Yokohama Museum of Art | |
| 1965 | (Thorns) | Photogram, 53.8 × 43.7 cm | Yokohama Museum of Art |
| 1970 | (Cabbage Song) | Photogram, 28.6 × 23.0 cm | Yokohama Museum of Art |
| 1971 | (Tattered Umbrella Song) | Photogram, 51.8 × 35.0 cm | Yokohama Museum of Art |
| 1974 | Photogram, 51.8 × 35.0 cm | Yokohama Museum of Art | |
| n/a | (Desktop) | Photogram, 44.3 × 35.6 cm | Yokohama Museum of Art |
| n/a | Photogram, 44.6 × 37.0 cm | Yokohama Museum of Art | |
| n/a | (Portrait) | Photogram, 44.6 × 37.9 cm | Yokohama Museum of Art |