The Public Domain:
Japan 1976-79
From an early age, my interest in Japan was acute. I was fascinated with Japanese related imagery in books and magazines, by my father’s love of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado, and the Japanese folk tales he read to me, published by Tuttle. During high school, and college Summer breaks, I worked for a Japanese travel agency in New York City. In college, I majored in Japanese Studies and for two successive Summers, 1972 & 73, I visited Japan as a student and traveler. In fact, my very first flight at age 20 was on a 747 airliner, destination Tokyo.
In January 1976, I returned to Japan with a one-way ticket (not recommended), $60 in my pocket, a portfolio, a Hasselblad 500C, a Leica IIIg and ambition. Fortunately, I had a connection and a place to stay. From the first day onward and for much of the next three years, I walked through numerous neighborhood streets, city parks and temple grounds hoping to learn what I could about the people through photography.
To support my work, I took teaching jobs, foreign correspondence opportunities, and eventually a support position with Time-Life Books Tokyo. There, I was exposed not only to the world of publishing, but more importantly, the work lives of my Japanese coworkers. The exposure improved my understanding of what I was seeing when unnoticed by my subjects, as well as how they reacted to a foreigner, and to a roving lone white man (still something of a rarity in the late 70s). Over time, my neighbors and associates accepted my presence as simply part of the social fabric and my relationships became more inclusive and revealing.
Japan in the 1970’s was a society on the threshold of change. The effects of postwar reconstruction were still being felt. Most notably advancing technologies and globalism were challenging the society to become more open and international. Being a resilient, nuanced, complex culture, rife with an ancient and varied history, Japan proved to be extraordinarily adaptive and inventive especially noticeable where material culture and the arts were concerned. Social relationships, on the other hand, adhered to long-standing traditions. Social norms seemed no less foundational for the Japanese than those of traditional Judeo-Christian society to Americans. But these too, would prove to change under stress, particularly with regard to generational relationships.
These photographs are collectively a snapshot of a moment amid change experienced by subjects and photographer alike. My focus was on a social intimacy that I feared might be erased in time.What we shared, my hosts and I, were incremental challenges and discoveries within the midst of forces still forming on the horizon of our daily experience.
At right: A Better View, Tokyo, 1978