A photographic introduction to items from the collection

Record of "Scenery" of Sixty Years after the War -- Minoru Ishii Photo Library

Minoru Ishii Photo Library is a group of materials mainly consisting of more than 300,000 photos taken in every region of Japan by the late Minoru Ishii (1926-2007) who continued taking photos from the early postwar years until just before he died in December 2007.

Ishii started as a teacher at an elementary school in Tokyo (Photo 1), and then worked as a teacher of geography at a municipal senior high school and a university while continuing to take photos of landscapes in every region of Japan as part of the research of geography and the development of teaching materials. These photos are a record of natural and cultural landscapes that are important for geography, and many of them appear in Nihon Chishi [Geographical Book of Japan)] in 21 volumes (Ninomiya Shoten, 1967-1980), which is the largest scientific geographical book in the postwar period. Ishii himself called those photos "geography photos," and published books and photo collections of them (Photographing Regions (Kokon Shoin, 1974), Geographic Photography (Kokon Shoin, 1988), Earth and Graphic -- Geographic Landscape (Asakura Publishing, 1989), Geographic Landscape -- From the Ancient to the Modern Period (Taimeido, 1999), Photo Collection: Tokyo -- Story of Urban Transformation 1948-2000 (KK Bestsellers, 2001), and others).

Many of these photos were taken continuously and systematically from various directions in the same regions such as the urban area of Tokyo, the mountain village of Oku-Tama, etc., and are very highly valued as materials recording the regions. He also took photos at fixed locations, which make it possible to recognize at a glance the transformation of the landscape.

コンタクトプリントを貼り付けた写真集
Photo 1: Certificate of teacher assignment at Kamata National Elementary School in Tokyo Photo 2: Photo albums with contact prints attached

Besides, these photos were taken from the early postwar period through the high economic growth period until the beginning of the 21st century, thus showing the period of major transformation of the landscape, life, and culture of Japan. In this sense, their value as historical materials is extremely high. Ishii strongly wished his lifework to be used as research materials permanently, and showed interest in donating them to the Museum while he lived. In February, 2009, the materials officially became part of the Museum collection. In addition, there are fifteen photography records describing detailed routes of photography trips, not to mention the photography dates (Photo 3-a). These photos are highly valued as historical materials not only because of their photo images but also because they identify the photography dates and locations as past data.

Photo 3-a: Photography record indicating the "platform site" in Imasuwa on November 1, 1964 on a page Photo 3-b: Site of Imasuwa Station of Yamanashi Kotsu (currently Minami-Alps City) (November 1, 1964)
Maide in OccupiedJapan
Photo 4: Camera with an inscription of "Made in occupied Japan"

Ishii started taking photos with Tensen’s children’s camera during the war. By the time he started photography in earnest, he was using various forms of film with his own ideas. They are currently under arrangement, but there are more than 2,000 films of Brownie size, about 250 photographic plates, and also color positive films for slides apparently used for photographs taken at the same time as the 35-mm negative films mentioned above. They are organized according to subject and location. For recent items, more than 15,000 digital photos are stored as electronic data, and lists of them with images are printed out and stored in twelve files.

There are also cameras and other equipment used by Ishii, and various photos, literature, etc. collected by him. Among them, the camera produced in Japan under occupation with an inscription of "Made in occupied Japan" (Photo 4) and photos of various regions of the Korean Peninsula in the 1930s are particularly notable.

Let me introduce some of these photos in the following.

東京駅丸の内側(1950年) 東京駅丸の内側(1992年)
Photo 5-a: Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station (1950) Photo 5-b: Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station (1992)
渋谷駅から南方を望む(1961年) 渋谷駅から南方を望む(2000年)
Photo 6-a: Southern view from Shibuya Station (1961) Photo 6-b: Southern view from Shibuya Station (2000)

Photography of change

Photos 5-a and 5-b show the Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station in 1950 and in 1992. Tokyo Station is seen on the left, Tokyo Central Post Office at the front, and Marunouchi Building on the right. Buildings became taller and the number of cars increased in more than forty years. A bonnet bus is seen on the street in 1950.

Photos 6-a and 6-b show the southern view from Shibuya Station in 1961 and 2000. The railroad track on the right side is the Yamanote Line, and that on the left side is the Tokyu Toyoko Line. Tall buildings are rare, and the view is open all the way to the area of Ebisu Station in 1961. Smokestacks seen far in that area on the upper right are those of beer factories that are now office buildings.

図7 東京のある小学校 図8 国会議事堂前に設けられた樺美智子さんの祭壇
Photo 7: An elementary school in Tokyo (Summer of 1950) Photo 8: Altar of Michiko Kanba set in front of the National Diet Building (1960)

Photography of society

Photo 7 is a photo taken at an elementary school in Tokyo in the summer of 1950. Five years after the defeat, Japan still suffered from food shortage. All the children were thin.

In the movement against the revision of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, Michiko Kanba, a student of Tokyo University, died in the fight between students who broke into the National Diet Building and through the police on June 15, 1960. Photo 8 shows the scene of mourning in front of the National Diet Building.

The large letters on the altar mean "Protest against Bloodshed."

栃木県壬生町の輸出玩具工場 東武鉄道宇都宮線の「おもちゃのまち」駅
Photo 9-a: Export toy factory in Mibu-machi, Tochigi Prefecture (1968) Photo 9-b: "Omocha-no-machi" Station of Tobu Railway Utsunomiya Line (1968)
岡山県児島の縫製工場
Photo 10: Sewing factory in Kojima, Okayama Prefecture (1970)

Photography of industry

Photos 9-a and 9-b show a scene of working in a factory inside in the export toy factory complex in Mibu-machi, Tochigi Prefecture in 1968, and "Omocha-no-machi" Station opened on Utsunomiya Line of Tobu Railway.

Photo 10 shows a sewing factory in Kojima, Okayama Prefecture (currently Kurashiki City)in 1970. Kojima was a place of production of school uniforms and working clothes. Both photos show scenes of the Japanese high economic growth period.

Photo 11: Wind-shaped trees in the mountains of Zao (1953)

Photography of wind

Photo 11 is a photo of a wind-shaped tree in the Yamagata-side mountains of Mt. Zao taken from the south in 1953. Because the prevailing wind of winter blows from the west to the east, the left-hand branches are prevented from growing on the windward side while the branches grow on both sides on the lower half of the tree because they are buried in snow and not affected by the wind. This is a photo that captures the climate.

The photos introduced here are only a part of Minoru Ishii Photo Library. The photos are now being organized in the Museum's collaborative research "'Geographic Photographs' as Materials and Their Use," and will be exhibited in the near future.

Hiro'o Aoyama (Historical Geography, Research Department)