is a Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 engraver

Engraving

Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...

 artist, photographer, and occasional politician.

Born 1935 in Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, Akiyama studied engraving at Musashino Art School, the predecessor of Musashino Art University

Musashino Art University

is a university in Kodaira, western Tokyo founded in 1962 and has roots going back to 1929.Teikoku Art School was founded in 1929; in 1948 it became Musashino Art School , and in 1962 it became Musashino Art University...

, and then worked as an industrial designer for an electrical company. He started exhibiting his own tin

Tin

Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...

 engravings and other work from 1965, and in both 1975 and 1979 stood in elections for Governor of Tokyo, bringing pop art

Pop art

Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...

 into the process.

Exhibitions of his work have included "Akiyama Yūtokutaishi no sekai-ten" in Ikeda 20-Seiki Bijutsukan ' onMouseout='HidePop("18352")' href="/topics/Ito,_Shizuoka">Itō

Ito, Shizuoka

is a city located on the eastern shore of the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka, Japan. As of 2010, the city had an estimated population of 71,400 and the density of 578 persons per km². The total area was...

, Shizuoka) in 1994.

From 1999 until 2003, Akiyama was an adjunct professor at Sapporo University

Sapporo University

, also known as 札大 for an abbreviation, is a private university in Sapporo, Japan. It was founded in 1967.-Teaching staff:*Yūtokutaishi Akiyama, artist*Carlo Forlivesi, composer*Tama Morita, writer-Alumni:*Kazuya Kawabata, footballer...

.

Since 1992, Akiyama has joined Genpei Akasegawa and Yutaka Takanashi

Yutaka Takanashi

is a Japanese photographer who has photographed fashion, urban design, and city life, and is best known for his depiction of Tokyo.-Life and career:...

 in Raika Dōmei

Raika Dōmei

is a group of three Japanese photographers and their associates who have worked together on exhibitions and books since 1992.-History and concept:In 1992, the artist, novelist and old-camera enthusiast Genpei Akasegawa, the artist Yūtokutaishi Akiyama, and the photographer Yutaka Takanashi met at...

 .

Akiyama appears in the film Yūheisha/Terorisuto (dir. Masao Adachi

Masao Adachi

Masao Adachi is a Japanese screenwriter and director who was most active in the 1960s and 1970s.-Career:...

, 2007).

Work by Akiyama is in the permanent collection of the Tokushima Modern Art Museum.

Books by Akiyama

• Tsūzokuteki geijutsuron: Poppu-āto no tatakai . Tokyo: Doyō Bijutsusha, 1985.
• Hōmatsu ketsujin retsuden: Shirazaru chō-zen'ei . Tokyo: Nigensha, 2002. ISBN 4-544-02037-9.
• Buriki otoko . Tokyo: Shōbunsha, 2007. ISBN 978-4-7949-6708-4.
• Tennen rōjin: Konna ni tanoshii dokkyo-seikatsu . ASCII Shinsho. Tokyo: ASCII Media Works, 2008. ISBN 978-4-04-867241-2.

External links

• Akiyama's blog
• Akiyama's 1975 election poster (as linked from this page within the MOMAT
  National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
  The in Tokyo, Japan, is the foremost museum collecting and exhibiting contemporary Japanese art.This Tokyo museum is also known by the English acronym MOMAT...
  
   website)
• Akiyama's 1979 election poster
• Review by Seigow Matsuoka of Akiyama's book Hōmatsu ketsujin retsuden.
• Raika Dōmei