Tohoku: Through The Eyes of Japanese Photographers ^Featured

Friday 14th - Monday 31st August, 2015
Tupou Tertiary Institute School Hall
Monday - Saturday 9:00am - 5:00pm

“ FREE ADMISSION ”

Enquiries: Call the Embassy of Japan at 22 221
© Driving off Sparrows, Kitsunezaka, Taiyu Village, Teisuke Chiba, Courtesy of Teiko Chiba

Summary for Exhibition

The Embassy of Japan will open the Overseas Travelling Exhibition, “Tohoku – Through the Eyes of Japanese Photographers ” in Nuku’alofa this Thursday, 13 August 2015. Overseas Travelling Exhibition from Japan are created and provided to enhance understanding of culture, history and the way of life of the Japanese people to the people of the world.

The “Tohoku – Through the Eyes of the Japanese Photographers” will be the 4th Overseas Travelling Exhibition hosted by the Embassy of Japan in the Kingdom, since 2011.

1st - 2011 – The Dolls of Japan (Shapes of Prayer, Embodiments of Love)
2nd - 2013 – Kumamoto Artpolis (Architecture through Communication)
3rd - 2014 – Parallel Nippon (Contemporary Japanese Architecture 1996-2000)
4th - 2015 – Tohoku – Through the Eyes of the Japanese Photographers

Tohoku is the north-eastern section of Honshu, the largest island in the Japanese Archipelago. On March 11, 2011 an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 struck Japan and the worse damage was concentrated in the Tohoku region. The media coverage of the destruction made many people familiar with the names of Tohoku cities and prefectures, but few are likely to have a broad knowledge of other aspects of the region – its climate, natural and cultural environment, history, way of life or people.

The Exhibition was produced to mark the first anniversary of the disaster, and is composed of 123 photographs of Tohoku taken by nine individual photographers and one photographers group, who are all from Tohoku - to present many fascinating aspects of Tohoku to the people of the world and for viewers to consider the nature of the Japanese people and think about the future of Tohoku. (list of photographers detailed below)

Exhibition centre is the Tupou Tertiary School Hall at Fasi mo e Afi, admission is FREE. The Exhibition will be open from 13th – 31st August 2015, from 9:00am to 5:00pm (except for Sundays) following an Opening Ceremony at 2:00pm this Thursday, 13th August.

The “Tohoku – Through the Eyes of the Japanese Photographers” was exhibited in Wellington, New Zealand from 3 June – 2 July, 2015. After the 2 weeks exhibition in Tonga it will be travelling to be exhibited in Honai, Vietnam.

Overseas Travelling Exhibitions are funded by the Japan Foundation. Japan Foundation is an Independent Administrative Institution, supervised by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the objective of promoting international cultural exchange through a comprehensive range of programs in all regions of the world.
Photographers and Photographs;

Photographers;

1. Teisuke Chiba (1917 – 1965)
2. Ichiro Kojima (1924 -1964)
- Photographed Tohoku in the 1950’s and 1960’s
3. Hideo Haga (1921 - )
4. Masatoshi Naito (1938 -)
5. Masaru Tatsuki (1974 - )
- Recorded festivals and folk religious rites throughout the region
6. Hiroshi Oshima (1944 - )
7. Naoya Hatakeyama(1958 -)
- Combined their personal histories with landscapes of their home regions
8. Meiki Lin (1969 -)
- Turned his camera towards the beautiful natural environment
9. Nao Tsuda (1976-)
- Searched for the source of the Japanese spirit in relics and artifacts of the Jomon period
And a group of photographers led by Toru Ito have created the Sendai Collection, a series of photographers of anonymous scenes in Sendai and Miyagi prefecture in Tohoku.

Photographs;
Image size ranges from 248mm x310mm up to 1220mm x 688mm and the venue for the exhibition requires a total length of wall space of 150m, floor space 400 meter square.