August 15, 2007

Showa 1945-1989 exhibition (Part 2)

I visited the second part of the Showa photo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Photography last weekend.

This one was all about the "Hero's and Heroines" of the Showa era - sport stars, musicians, actors, politicians (!), businessmen etc.

Interesting, but not sure I'd recommend it to anyone who hasn't been in Japan for a while. I only managed to recognize a fraction of the faces, though pleased to see a photo of Rikidozan right by the entrance (the Korean-Japanese who established professional wrestling in Japan). I just saw an excellent biopic on him.

ButI didn't spot Tezuka Osamu amongst all the Showa cultural heavyweights. Professional wrestling must be more respectable than manga!

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July 26, 2007

Showa 1945-1989 exhibition

A belated blog about the Showa photo exhibition on at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. The exhibition (which I visited a few weeks ago) is in four parts and has photos from 1945 to 1989.

As a photographer friend pointed out, the Showa era started in 1925, but I guess the bit before Sept. 2nd 1945 got air-brushed out of this exhibition. The photo on the cover of the guide is of a young women emerging from a bomb shelter.

One of the most surprising thing about the exhibition was how raw the photos from the '50s and '60s were - especially the section on nude photos.

On the other hand, the guide-book only had one Araki photo, who must be Japan's best known photographers overseas. The photo is of the emperor's funeral cortege of all things. I hope Araki gets a better showing in the later exhibitions.

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