“Japanese Photography Magazines: 1880s to 1980s” presents a comprehensive century-long narrative woven through the lens of camera and photography magazines. Encompassing a rich array of over 1,300 visual representations, this publication illuminates the consistent role of magazines as pivotal platforms shaping and defining the trajectory of this artistic genre. Commencing with the earliest publications in the 19th century that centered around cameras and extending through the zenith of magazine influence in the 1980s, this book offers readers an immersive journey into the realms of celebrated photographers and those who have been inadvertently overlooked. Together, these photographers present a diverse spectrum of imagery and artistic approaches.
In addition to its visual content, the book incorporates an ample selection of original writings by photographers, which were originally featured within the magazine pages. These texts supply crucial context and background to some of the most iconic images within the field. Notable contributors include luminaries such as Araki Nobuyoshi, Fukase Masahisa, Hosoe Eikoh, Kawada Kikuji, Kimura Ihei, Moriyama Daido, Narahara Ikko, Sako Kōichi, Yasui Nakaji, as well as writings from figures like Tanikawa Shuntarō and Terayama Shūji, among numerous others.
Each magazine story showcased within the volume is accompanied by authoritative historical insights. Collectively, these insights provide readers with a balanced and nuanced panorama of the evolution of Japanese photography. This, in turn, furnishes readers with a foundational understanding of the pivotal concepts and vocabulary essential for discerning the unique attributes of Japanese photographic artistry.
The majority of the featured stories are presented in their entirety, rendering this volume an invaluable resource for researchers, collectors, casual readers, and enthusiasts of photography alike. It stands as a testament to the rich tapestry of Japanese photographic heritage and offers a vital reference for delving into the intricacies of this artistic journey.

Magazines are not unlike photography itself: unruly, energetic, ephemeral and largely disposable. They carry and express the spirit of their moment like nothing else. This major study of Japanese photography magazines, produced with the greatest care and expertise, captures what it was that made the country’s visual sensibility so rich and so special. Alongside portfolios by the great names, published before their famous books, there is fascinating work by brilliant but forgotten image makers, along with writing and design that is just as vital. This is a landmark publication, allowing us to see a visual culture develop, explore and expand in real time, across a century of enormous change.
—David Campany

About the Authors

Ryūichi Kaneko was one of the founding curators of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. As an expert on Japanese photography and Japanese photobooks, he authored numerous books and contributed to many publications and exhibitions internationally. Kaneko was a contributing author to The History of Japanese Photography (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2003) and author of Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s & ’70s (Aperture, 2009), Ueda Shoji: Photography Technique / We are all Amateurs! (Korinsha, 1999). He is the editor of the forthcoming anthology Shomei Tomatsu: Writings (Goliga, 2023).

Masako Toda is a photo historian, author, and curator of Japanese photography. She holds a masters from The University of Tokyo, Department of Humanities and Sociology. Toda is a lecturer at Musashino Art University, Tokyo College of Photography, among others. In 2006, she was awarded the incentive award by the Japan Society for Arts and History of Photography. Toda’s field of expertise is the history of modernism as well as postwar Japanese photography. She is the author of the photography monograph Hisae Imai, published by Akaaka Art Publishing, 2022.

Ivan Vartanian has edited and authored numerous books on photography and art, including Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s & ’70s (Aperture, 2009), Setting Sun: Writings by Japanese Photographers (Aperture, 2005), among others.