Ihei KIMURA
木村伊兵衛
Born on 12 December 1901 in Shitaya-ku (now Taitō-ku), Tokyo, Kimura started taking photographs when very young but his interest intensified when he was around 20 and living in Tainan, Taiwan, where he was working for a sugar wholesaler. He opened a photographic studio in Nippori, Tokyo in 1924. In 1930, he joined the advertising section of the soap and cosmetics company Kaō, concentrating on informal photographs made with his Leica camera. In 1933, he joined Yōnosuke Natori and others in forming the group Nippon Kōbō ("Japan workshop"), which emphasized "realism" in photography using 35mm cameras; but this rapidly broke up and Kimura formed an alternative group, Chūō Kōbō ("central workshop") with Nobuo Ina and others.
During the war, Kimura worked in Manchuria and for the publisher Tōhō-sha. He edited Front, the propaganda photo journal of the Tōhō-sha company. He also contributed to a propaganda magazine, Shashin Shūhō, in the same period.
In 1950, Kimura was elected chairman of the newly formed Japan Professional Photographers Society (JPS); together with Ken Domon he did much to encourage a documentary spirit in amateur photography.
In the mid-fifties, Kimura made several trips to Europe, providing photographs for the camera magazines. His work was included by Edward Steichen in the world-touring 1955 MoMA exhibition The Family of Man. Pari, a collection of his color photographs of Paris, would only be published in 1974, but the use of color was ahead of its time.
On his return to Japan, Kimura concentrated on photographing rural life in Akita. He also worked on portraits, particularly of writers.
Kimura died at his home in Nippori on 31 May 1974; the Kimura Ihei Award for new photographers was promptly set up in his honor. He remains popular in Japan: samples of his photographs still (2009) regularly appear in the magazine Asahi Camera.
His work was exhibited at the Rencontres d'Arles festival in 2004.
Publications
1937 - "Japanese School Life through the Camera" Tokyo: Society for International Cultural Relations (Kokusai Bunka Shinkōkai)
1938 - "Japan through a Leica" Tokyo: Sanseido
1940 - "Four Japanese Painters" JPS Picture Books
1941 - "Kōki nisenroppyaku-nen gōshuku geinōsai (皇紀二千六百年奉祝藝能際)" Kokusai Hōdō Kōgei
1943 - "Ōdō rakudo (王道樂土)" Tokyo: Ars, . Photographs of Manchuria
1949 - "Rokudaime Onoe Kikugorō butai shashinshū (六代目尾上菊五郎舞臺寫眞集)" Photograph collection of the sixth Onoe 1954 - "Kikugorō on the stage" Kyoto: Wakei Shoten
1954 - "Kimura Ihee kessaku shashinshū (木村伊兵衛傑作写真集)" Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha
1955 - "Kimura Ihee gaiyū shashinshū: Dai ikkai (木村伊兵衛外遊写真集：第一回)" Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, .
1956 - "Kimura Ihee gaiyū shashinshū: Dai nikai: Yōroppa no inshō (木村伊兵衛外遊写真集：第二回：ヨーロッパの印象) / Impression of Europe" Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha
1958 - "Zōsenjo no inshō (造船所の印象) / At a Shipyard. Sekai Shashin Sakka (世界写真作家)" Tokyo: Heibonsha
1959 - "Kimura Ihee sakuhinshū (木村伊兵衛作品集), Collected photographs of Ihei Kimura" Gendai Nihon shashin zenshū (現代日本写真全集), vol. 1. Tokyo: Sōgensha
1962 - "Ōkawa Hashizō butai shashinshū (大川橋蔵舞台写真集) Photograph collection of Hashizō Ōkawa on the stage" Wakei Shoten
1966 - "Zenshinza butai shashinshū (前進座舞台写真集) Photograph collection of Zenshinza on stage)" Tokyo: Kenkōsha
1970 - "Kimura Ihee no me (木村伊兵衛の眼) The eye of Ihei Kimura" Special issue of Asahi Camera
1974 - "Kimura Ihee shashinshū: Chūgoku no tabi (木村伊兵衛写真集：中国の旅) Ihei Kimura photograph collection: Travels in China" Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha
1974 - "Kimura Ihee shashinshū: Pari (木村伊兵衛写真集：パリ) Ihei Kimura photograph collection: Paris" Tokyo: Norasha
1978 - "Akita (秋田)" Nikon Salon Books 4. Tokyo: Nikkor Club
1979 - "Rokudaime Kikugorō: Kimura Ihee shashinshū (六代目菊五郎：木村伊兵衛写真集) / Sixth Generation Kikugoro Sonorama Shashin Sensho 17" Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama
1990 - "Tanuma Takeyoshi (田沼武能), ed. Kimura Ihee no Shōwa (木村伊兵衛の昭和, The Shōwa period of Ihei Kimura). Chikuma Library 39. Tokyo: Chikuma
1991 - "Tanuma Takeyoshi (田沼武能), ed. Kimura Ihee: Shōwa no onna-tachi (木村伊兵衛 昭和の女たち, Ihei Kimura: The women of Shōwa)" Chikuma Library 55. Tokyo: Chikuma
1992 - "Kimura Ihee no sekai (木村伊兵衛の世界) / Photographs: Kimura Ihee" Tokyo: Tōkyōto Bunka Shinkōkai
1992 - "Kimura Ihee sakuhinten: Tokyo, 1945–1968 (木村伊兵衛作品展：「東京」1945～1968年, Ihei Kimura exhibition: Tokyo, 1945–68)" Tokyo: JCII Photo Salon
1993 - "Rokudaime Onoe Kikugorō: Zenseiki no meijingei (六代目尾上菊五郎：全盛期の名人芸, Sixth generation Onoe Kikugorō)" Tokyo: Nihon Eizō (distributed by Bungei Shunjū)
1994 - "Kimura Ihee to Akita ten (木村伊兵衛と秋田展, Exhibition of Ihei Kimura and Akita)" Akita: Akita Senshu Museum of Art
1995 - "Tanuma Takeyoshi (田沼武能), ed. Kimura Ihee: Shōwa o utsusu (木村伊兵衛 昭和を写す, Ihei Kimura: Photographing the Shōwa period)" Tokyo: Chikuma (Chikuma Bunko)
1998 - "Kimura Ihee (木村伊兵衛, Ihei Kimura). Nihon no Shashinka 8" Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten
2002 - "Teihon: Kimura Ihee (定本木村伊兵衛, Ihei Kimura: The definitive edition)" Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha,
2003 - "Boku to Raika: Kimura Ihee kessakusen + essei (僕とライカ：木村伊兵衛傑作選＋エッセイ, Leica and me: A collection of masterpieces by Ihei Kimura, and essays)" Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha
2002 - "Kimura Ihee (木村伊兵衛) / Ihei Kimura" Kyoto: Katsuhikan and the Kyoto Museum of Contemporary Art
2004 - "Kimura Ihee-ten (木村伊兵衛展) / Ihei Kimura: The Man with the Camera" Tokyo: National Museum of Modern Art
2006 - "Tanuma Takeyoshi (田沼武能), et al. Kimura Ihee no Pari (木村伊兵衛のパリ) / Kimura Ihei in Paris: Photographs 1954–1955." Tokyo: Asahi Shinbun-sha
