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Tokyo, 1962 by Yasuhiro Ishimoto The Map, The A-Bomb Memorial Dome and Ohta River, 1960-65 by Kikuji Kawada

Fashion show at the Mitsukoshi department store, Nihonbashi, Tokyo, 1956 by Shigeichi Nagano © Shigeichi Nagano

METAMORPHOSIS OF JAPAN AFTER THE WAR

runs until 26 April at Open Eye Gallery, 19 Mann Island, Liverpool L3 1BP; openeye.org.uk. Admission free.

© Yasuhiro Ishimoto © Kikuji Kawada

powers (largely by the USA)

until 1952 and was transformed

into a democratised state. But

America’s influence wasn’t just

in government: their products,

attitudes and culture filtered

through too. This tension

between holding on to cultural

heritage versus an embracing of

modernity and the West is seen

in the second room of the show.

Ta ke yosh i Ta nu m a’s s t re et

scenes highlight this friction:

take for example his image of an

isolated young girl dressed in a

mixture of Eastern and Western

fashion. We see how culturally

disordered life for some Japanese

people was. Shigei Nagano’s

picture Fashion show at the

Mitsokoshi department store

shows a model in an American

1950s chic outfit set against a

crowd of contrastingly dressed

Japanese women – who bear

sceptical expressions.

The exhibition ends with

Japan in social unrest. Largely

pictures of student and worker

protests of the 1960s, this

section spotlights how the

Japanese were redefining

themselves. Eikoh Hosoe’s

Ordeal by Roses also illustrates

how a more experimental way of

seeing the world was emerging,

which helped pave the way for

the Provoke generation of the

1970s with their ‘rough, blurry,

out of focus’ style.

Despite being a well-

documented period, this

is one of the first shows of

its kind in the UK, giving a

predominately Western audience

the chance to see a part of

Japan’s metamorphosis into the

economic superpower it is today.

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