is a photojournalist

Photojournalism

Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism...

 best known for his depiction of the effects of mercury poisoning

Minamata disease

', sometimes referred to as , is a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning. Symptoms include ataxia, numbness in the hands and feet, general muscle weakness, narrowing of the field of vision and damage to hearing and speech. In extreme cases, insanity, paralysis, coma, and death...

 on people in and near Minamata

Minamata, Kumamoto

is a city located in Kumamoto prefecture, Japan. It is on the west coast of Kyūshū. The city was founded on April 1, 1949.As of 2008, the city has an estimated population of 27,856 and the density of 171 persons per km²...

 over a period of some forty years.

Kuwabara was born — as Fumiaki Kuwabara — in the village of Kibe (now part of Tsuwano

Tsuwano, Shimane

is a town in Kanoashi District, Shimane Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the town has an estimated population of 8,878 and a density of 28.9 persons per km². The total area is 307.09 km²....

), Shimane Prefecture

Shimane Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region on Honshū island. The capital is Matsue. It is the second least populous prefecture in Japan, after its eastern neighbor Tottori. The prefecture has an area elongated from east to west facing the Chūgoku Mountain Range on the south side and to...

, Japan. In 1960 he graduated from the Tokyo University of Agriculture

Tokyo University of Agriculture

The , abbreviated as Nodai or Tokyo nodai , is a private university which treats agriculture in Japan.The campus is in three places, Setagaya, Atsugi, and Okhotsk .- Outline :...

 and Tokyo Photo School (later Tokyo College of Photography

Tokyo College of Photography

The was set up in Nakano, Tokyo in 1958, as Tokyo Photo School ; its current name dates from 1960. During the 1960s, it moved to Hiyoshi , where it has remained....

).

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

Minamata, Kumamoto

is a city located in Kumamoto prefecture, Japan. It is on the west coast of Kyūshū. The city was founded on April 1, 1949.As of 2008, the city has an estimated population of 27,856 and the density of 171 persons per km²...

 Municipal Hospital, Dr Noboru Ōhashi, in July, to ask for permission to photograph. Ōhashi gave him permission for long-term coverage.

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.

Kuwabara's works have also won an award from Kodansha

Kodansha

, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...

 in 1965, the Photographic Society of Japan's Annual Award in 1971, and the Ina Nobuo Award

Ina Nobuo Award

The is given annually by the Nikon Salon, an organization of exhibition spaces in Japan that is sponsored by Nikon Corporation.The award was started in 1976; it is named in honor of Nobuo Ina, a photography critic who headed the Nikon Salon from 1968 until his death in 1978.The award is given to...

 in 1982.

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.

Books by Kuwabara

• Shashin-shū Minamata-byō / Minamata Desease [sic]. Tokyo: San'ichi Shobō, 1965.
• Shashin-kiroku Minamata-byō 1960–1970 ( 1960–1970, "Documentary: Minamata disease"). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbun, 1970.
• Seikatsusha gunzō . Tokyo: San'ichi Shobō, 1980.
• Minamata Kankoku Betonamu . Tokyo: Banseisha, 1982.
• Tōji no sato Kōrai, Richō . Tokyo: Iwanami, 1984.
• Kōrai, Richō gendai tōjisen . Tokyo: Mainichi Shinbun, 1985.
• Kankoku genkei . Tokyo: San'ichi Shobō, 1986.
• Minamata . Komichi Shobō, 1986.
• Hōdōshashinka . Tokyo: Iwanami, 1989.
• Kankoku shinjō toro . Tokyo: Ōtsuki, 1990. ISBN 4-272-62013-4
• Yameru taikoku Roshia . Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1995. ISBN 4-582-27731-4
• Kuwabara Shisei / Minamata . 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 Tokyo: Kusa-no-Ne. Each of these four volumes contains explanatory text in English as well as Japanese.
  • 1. Minamata . 2004. ISBN 4-87648-141-5
  • 2. Kankoku . 1998. ISBN 4-87648-142-3
  • 3. Chikuhō/Okinawa . 2004. ISBN 4-87648-143-1 The first half is about the declining coalmines of Chikuho
    Chikuho, Fukuoka
    was a town located in Kaho District, Fukuoka, Japan.On March 26, 2006 Chikuho, along with the towns of Honami, Kaita and Shōnai, all from Kaho District, was merged into the expanded city of Iizuka....
    
    .
  • 4. Betonamu . 1999. ISBN 4-87648-144-X
• Imujin-gan: Kaima-mita Kita Chōsen . 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 / 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

• Official Website Minamata exhibition notice: contains some photographs
• Tragedy to Triumph: an article about an exhibition in Seoul of Kuwabara's photographs of South Korea Shisei Kuwabara Photographics Museum
• Short CV