Yasuhiro Ishimoto – Moment – By Mei Asakura
“…Yasuhiro Ishimoto is visually bilingual: Japanese in his culture, Eastern in his way of seeing and Western in his training at the Chicago Institute of Design (contemporary center of the Bauhaus tradition), he speaks English with a German accent.” – Minor White
In the late 1980s, Ishimoto began his series “Toki” [Moment], whose working title throughout the years of filming was utsuroi [the fugitive, the transient]. These images focus on the impermanence of things: dead leaves curled up on the asphalt, empty cans, the moving surface of a flowing stream, urban crowds, falling and melting snow, clouds floating in the sky […]. This approach also resonates with the conception of nature, life and death presented in classical Japanese literature. Recognized for his formal approach and his keen sensitive perception, Ishimoto focused in his latest works on the contemplation of a world in perpetual movement where the ephemeral defines everything.
When the photographer Minor White, after visiting his individual exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1960, described him as “visually bilingual”, Ishimoto reacted strongly to this formulation which suggested that he had invented a new language through the synthesis of looks. Western and Eastern – he who, in this area, received no education in Japan. It was only much later, towards the end of his life, after exploring his Japanese roots, encountering the philosophy of non-duality and seeing how sensitive he was to the traditional Japanese approach to impermanence, that he ultimately seemed to agree with White’s words. The destination was finally reached, after a journey of half a century on the path that he had to travel, between two identities, Western and Eastern.
By Mei Asakura, curator at the Ishimoto Yasuhiro Photo Center (The Museum of Art, Kochi).
Excerpt from L’impact de l’œuvre de Yasuhiro Ishimoto au Japon : Tokyo dans les années 1950 and Beyond in the book Yasuhiro Ishimoto. Des lignes et des corps.
