shashasha

In Summer 1956, working as a photojournalist, a 24-year old Takashi Hamaguchi visited the beaches of Kujuukuri-hama in Chiba prefecture (about 100km East of Tokyo). His camera loaded with brand-new Fuji positive film, Hamaguchi joined a group of local fishers and documented their arduous daily work.

At the time, Hamaguchi was under strong influence by his mentor Tadahiko Hayashi. Hayashi had just taken photographs at Kujuukuri-hama the year before, and so Hamaguchi felt inspired to visit the shores himself.

There were no fishing harbours in Kujuukuri-hama in the 1950s, owing to the wide shallowness of the sea there. Many of them in the nude, the fishermen and women strain as they let fishing vessels into sea, work together to pull the catch ashore, and divide the thousands of fish right there, on the sandy beach. The rich presence of fish being particularly strong in Kujuukuri-hama, the fishermen named it the "Jewel Coast".