Category Archives: Toshio Enomoto

“Kagirohi”- B/W-photographs by Toshio Enomoto, 13 April – 15 June 2012

Posted by Michele
Toshio Enomoto exposes the Japanese Soul in his photographs

Toshio Enomoto, born 1947 in Tokyo, belongs to the generation of Japanese after-WWII-photographers such as Shomei Tomatsu or Imei Suda, just to mention two of the most prominent representatives. We would stretch this blog a bit too much if we would write extensively about Enomoto’s complete photographic oeuvre so far, so we will concentrate our post on Enomoto’s visual language and its effects on our western viewing habits.

The difference between Japanese and Western viewers in interpreting what is seen is particularly accentuated in his Sakura pictures of his series “Kagirohi” (which roughly means “light shortly before dawn”). Our western eyes interprets the cherry blossoms as a symbol of new life, the awakening of nature after a long winter. We enjoy the blossoming of the cherry trees and the remaining flora and wish for a possibly long, warm and sunny spring. Japanese people on the other hand celebrate “hanami”, the viewing of the falling cherry blossoms”. This means that they enjoy the ephemeral beauty of the white or pink cherry blossoms while they are falling to the ground, while they die. This reminds them of the limited time all living things have on earth.

A new beginning versus the ephemeral, two completely different views of the same spectacle of nature.

Despite the apparent opulence of his sakura pictures, Toshio Enomoto reduces the view purely on the essential. Like in all Japanese art forms, the principle of “Perfection through Reduction”. His pictures of the world of Maikos and Geishas in Kyoto seem to reflect a certain familiarity in our in visual memory. On the surface we recall the cliché pictures that we would spontaneously associate with Japan, would we be asked and had no time to reflect. At a second look though, we realize that Enomoto is not serving us with our own cliché about Japan. On the opposite, his photographs allow us a deep glimpse into the collective Japanese soul, in a way that only a Japanese photographer can fix with his camera and that remains mostly inaccessible to our western eyes and minds.

Enomoto’s works have been shown before in a solo exhibition in the Netherlands. At Micheko we showed some of his Sakura b/w-photographs in our theme-exhibition “Sakura” in 2011.

“KAGIROHI”

NIGHT ART 2012 in Munich

Posted by Michele

Micheko is delighted to participate for the first time as a new member of the Initiative of Munich Galleries of Contemporary Art at NIGHT ART 2012 on Saturday, 12 May 2012 from 11am till 11pm.

Micheko will add to this extraordinary event, with two special events:

from 12am till 6pm Keiko Tanaka will introduce interestes visitors to MONKIRIGATA, Japanese cutout art. You will learn to create beautiful and decorative patterns, which can be used in many different ways. Unfortunately Monkirigata is not yet for younger children. We will admit only participants from 15 years of age.

from 7pm till 8pm Japanese drummers of the group TAMPOPO will rock visitors with their beats. Nobody will stay still at their beats. That’s a promise.

Come visit us at NIGHT ART 2012. For more information visit the NIGH ART website.

 

Photobook by Toshio Enomoto

Posted by Michele

Contemporary Japanese Photography has produced in the past decades several photobooks, which nowadays fetch top prices from collectors. Photobooks are very popular in Japan and can reach print runs, which would make a few fiction writers blush.

Nobuyoshi Araki sold prints of his photographs on the streets and published his first photobooks all by himself. Rinko Kawauchi, one of the most popular female contemporary photographers, became well known overnight by publishing three photobooks simultaneously.

Photobooks by Japanese photographers, especially from the 1960s and ’70s, cost several thousand Euro nowadays.

Toshio Enomoto, born 1947, had his German debut at our SAKURA exhibition last March. His black & white photographs are part of collections of various museums and many of his editions are already or nearly sold out.

We have some remaining copies of his book “Kagirohi” (2008). This photobook shows a selection of his works from the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s of which we have some in our collection for sale. The book can be bought for 70 Euro at our gallery. Some art book dealers are already selling it at a much higher price.

Secure your personal copy by calling +49 89-38 16 93 88 or by writing to contact AT micheko.com.

Please visit also Toshio Enomoto’s website to learn more about his works.

KAGIROHI by Toshio Enomoto

Kagirohi (2008)