12 photographers, ranking among the most important representatives of Japanese photography of the 1960s, convey their views on Japan during a time of rapid economic growth and corporate change. The spectrum extends from photo reportage and the spontaneous situation-portrait, from symbolically rich production and graphic abstraction to the poetics of picture narration. They show the effects of the atomic bomb as well as the meditative environment of a Buddhist monastery; they direct the eye to the pulsating rhythms of the big city and to the facets of public life as can be seen in the concealed detail and rich ornamental art of a picture, literally alive on the tattooed bodies of the Yakuza.

Exhibition objects: 70 b/w-photographs, 13 text panels
Exhibition space: 300 sqm
Catalog: German

Exhibition venues:
Nikon Live Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland, May 15, 1993 – June 29, 1993
Historisches Museum der Pfalz, Speyer, Germany, July 11, 1993 – September 5, 1993
Historisches Zentrum Wuppertal, Germany, September 16, 1993 – October 22, 1993
Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Hanover, Germany, November 16, 1993 – February 13, 1994
documenta-Halle, Kassel, Germany, March 23, 1994 – April 18, 1994
Angermuseum, Erfurt, Germany, May 21, 1994 – July 10, 1994
Burg Beeskow, Germany, July 18, 1994 – August 31, 1994
Gruner + Jahr AG, Hamburg, Germany, September 13, 1994 – October 21, 1994
Kunstverein Wiligrad, Lübstorf, Germany, January 14, 1995 – February 19, 1995
Museum St. Ingbert, Germany, August 29, 1999 – October 17, 1999

Ikko, Narahara, Running Monk

Eiko Hosoe, Family scene

Ikko Naharara, Monk begging

Ryoji, Akiyama, at the urinals