captures an exhilarating childhood moment in which
theadultgazeoftheaudiencegetscaughtbetween
constraint and play, sexuality and innocence. The
world tour ofFamily of Manbrought his work to a
global audience and provided him with the opportu-
nity to publish a 1958 collection of his work in Japan
asAru Hi Aru Tokoro(Someday Somewhere).
Shortly after theFamily of Manexhibition, in
1956, Ishimoto married Shigeru, to whom he re-
mains married. The couple returned to Chicago in
1958, living there until 1961 when they moved to
Japan, where Ishimoto applied for and received citi-
zenship. While in Chicago, however, Ishimoto had
put together two series of pictures that illustrate the
three major influences on his work: the city life of
Chicago, traditional Japanese art, and the principles
of the New Bauhaus.
In the years after his bookAru Hi Aru Tokoro
won the 1958 New Talent Prize of the Japanese
Photography Critics’ Association, he compiled two
other books:Chicago, Chicago, a lyrical portrayal of
life in Chicago at the end of the 1950s, andKatsura,
an architectural anatomy of the seventeenth-cen-
tury Imperial detached palace (or ‘‘Villa’’) at Kat-
sura. Although the subjects ofChicago, Chicagoand
Katsura are quite different from one another,
depicting different eras in different countries, Ishi-
moto drew on the Bauhaus aesthetic in capturing
them. On the one hand, Ishimoto presents life in
Chicago according to the principles of Moholy-
Nagy’sVision in Motion, observing and structuring
the inner life of his fellow humans through their
interactions with the new technology. On the other
hand, he presents the Imperial design of the Villa at
Katsura as if it were a result of Bauhaus geometrical
design theoriesavant la lettre.
Along with Moholy-Nagy, Ishimoto can count
Hiroshige, the nineteenth-century painter, and
Basho ̃, the Japanese Haiku poet of the seventeenth
century, as major influences. Each of them, in their
respective disciplines, was a master of the genre
representing each of the customary stations along
the Tokkaido—the major road linking the capital
at Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to the Emperor in
Kyoto. From Hiroshige, he took elegance and an
ability to catch a moment in time; and from Basho ̃,
a contemplative delight in tiny details. Rather than
coach stops at guest houses along a road, Ishimo-
to’s stations of the Tokkaido are the 29 ‘‘JR’’
station stops between Tokyo and Kyoto on the
publicly-ownedYamanote-senof the national Ja-
panese Railway. The poignant pictures inYama-
note-sen 29are a further illustration of his ability
to grasp a historical design in the context of mod-
ern technology.
The same elegance and contemplative regard
found inYamanote-sen 29are also found in the
sequences of clouds, footprints, and crushed leaves
that comprise an increasing proportion of his work
in the 1990s. Ishimoto had addressed these subjects
earlier in his career, but he has dwelt on them—
pushing them to abstraction—even as the patient
clarity of his earlier work was helping him become
accepted as one of the main talents in twentieth-
century Japanese photography. His influence on
the younger generation of Japanese photographers
and especially on members of the VIVO (Esperanto
for ‘‘life’’) group has so far come from this earlier
phase. Most notable among the members of that
group who were affected by the intimate moments
he found in the city were Ikko Narahara, Eikoh
Hosoe, and Kukuji Kawada.
Ishimoto continues to take and print photo-
graphs. Since before his studies at the Institute of
Design he has printed his own pictures, a practice
that explains why his gelatin silver prints are never
larger than 1114 inches—the largest size he can
print in his darkroom. Along with re-envisioning
his classic series in his 1983 color pictures of the
Katsura palace, or his collectionChicago, Chicago
2 of the same year, Ishimoto re-investigates his old
negatives, allowing him to rediscover his former
triumphs and fashion new insights from them.
DanFriedman
Seealso:Bauhaus; Callahan, Harry; Institute of
Design; Moholy-Nagy, La ́szlo ́; Photography in
Japan; Photography in the United States: the Mid-
west; Siskind, AaronBiography
Born in San Francisco, 14 June 1921 to Japanese parents;
moved to Japan in 1924. Graduated from Kochi Prefec-
tural Agricultural High School, 1939; traveled to United
States, 1939. Studied agriculture at the University of
California, Los Angeles; interned in Japanese-American
camp, 1942–1944. Enrolled in architecture program at
Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, 1946. Stu-
died with Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind 1948–1952
at Institute of Design (ID), Chicago. Won prize in young
photographers’ contest sponsored by Lifemagazine;
ID’s Moholy-Nagy Prize 1951, 1952. Returned to
Japan, 1953. Married Shigeru, 1956, Won New Talent
Prize of the Japanese Photography Critics’ Association
for his bookAru Hi Aru Tokoro(Someday, Somewhere)
in 1958. Lived and photographed in Chicago, 1958–- Returned to Japan and won Camera Art Award
for ‘‘Face of Chicago’’ in 1962. Obtained Japanese citi-
zenship, 1969. Mainichi Art Award for his bookChi-
cago, Chicago, 1969. Received the Annual Award of the
Japan Photography Association and the Ministry of
Education’s Art Encouragement through the Selection
ISHIMOTO, YASUHIRO