__NOTOC__ was a Japanese

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

famous for portraits and nudes. Ōtake was born in Yokosuka (which later became Ōsuka, then

Kakegawa is a city in western Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 117,925 in 45,519 households. The total area of the city is . Geography Kakegawa is in the coastal plains of southwest Shizuoka Prefecture. It is border ...

Shizuoka Shizuoka can refer to: * Shizuoka Prefecture, a Japanese prefecture * Shizuoka (city), the capital city of Shizuoka Prefecture * Shizuoka Airport * Shizuoka Domain, the name from 1868 to 1871 for Sunpu Domain, a predecessor of Shizuoka Prefecture ...

on 15 May 1920, the oldest son of a father who worked in the

sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...

industry and a mother who performed on the

koto Koto may refer to: * Koto (band), an Italian synth pop group * Koto (instrument), a Japanese musical instrument * Koto (kana), a ligature of two Japanese katakana * Koto (traditional clothing), a traditional dress made by Afro-Surinamese women * K ...

and (transverse)

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

. The boy's mother died when he was six, and he moved to the house of his father's elder sister, his younger brother moved to another house, both in Yokosuka, while his father tried and failed in the transportation industry and quickly moved to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. A year later, the boy moved to the house of a rich family, still in Yokosuka. He started at school, quickly showing an aptitude for drawing, gaining a special mention in a national contest. Shōji moved to

with his father in 1928, living in Nippori with his father's new wife. He became a keen photographer when very young. Ōtake joined the army, but was able to work as a photographer. In 1947 he managed to attach himself to GHQ, for which he photographed singers and actresses at the Ernie Pyle Theatre. From 1949 he became involved in a succession of photographic organizations, as he continued work as a photojournalist. Starting in 1951, he spent five years photographing classical and other musicians from around the world during their stays in Japan; these photographs were published in ''

Asahi Camera was a Japanese monthly photographic magazine, published from April 1926 until July 2020, when it was discontinued due to declining circulation. History and profile The first issue was that for April 1926.During the twentieth century, Japanese mon ...

'' and in 1955 were collected in the highly praised book ''World Musicians.'' He was also publishing nude photographs in the magazines ''

Camera A camera is an Optics, optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), ...

'' and ''

Photo Art A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now create ...

.'' From the 1950s through the 1970s, Ōtake moved to become the top photographer of women in Japan. For five years from 1971, Ōtake photographed housewives and " OL" nude (sometimes together with their babies or small children, also nude) on

Nippon Television JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as , is the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned-and-operated by the which is a subsidiary of the certified broadcasting holding company , itself a listed su ...

; this work too was later collected into books. By the 1980s, Ōtake's fame and commercial success as a portraitist and photographer of nudes had eclipsed his earlier and very different work. Republication within the volume dedicated to him of the series "Shōwa Shashin Zenshigoto" (1982), and the publication the following year of ''Haruka naru uta,'' brought it great acclaim. Besides photography, Ōtake has also worked as television screenwriter and an essayist. As a photographer, he remained active into his late 80s. Among the photographers who have trained under Ōtake are Mineko Orisaku and Sanae Numata.S. Numata
, Olympus, 2007 (accessed 28 January 2008).

Books

Books devoted to Ōtake's work

*''Sekai no ongakuka'' () / ''World Musicians.'' Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1955. *''Onna no naka no onna'' (). Tokyo: Geibunsha, 1969. *''Janetto'' () ''Janet.'' Tokyo: Nippon Camera-sha, 1974. *''Teru hi kumoru hi'' (). Tokyo: Nippon Camera-sha, 1976. *''Famirī nūdo'' (). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1977. *''Sekai no ongakuka'' () / ''Musicians of the World.''

Sonorama Shashin Sensho The Sonorama Festival (since 2008 Sonorama-Ribera) is an annual music festival which takes place in the city of Aranda de Duero, in Castile and León (Spain), since 1998. It is organized by the cultural association, and non-profit, "Art de Troy ...

18. Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1979. *''Ōtake Shōji'' (). Shōwa Shashin Zenshigoto 4. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1982. A survey of Ōtake's career, interspersed with interviews, essays, etc. *''"Onna" 101 nin no shōzō'' (). Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1982. *''Haruka naru uta'' (). Tokyo: Kirihara Shoten, 1983. A collection of Ōtake's early work. *''Ranjuku no gogatsu midori'' (). Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1983. . *''Onna no te ga himitsu o kataru: Boku no tesō tanbōki'' (). Wani no Hon. Tokyo: Besutoserāzu, 1984. . *''Hana nareba: Razō'' (). Nihon Geijutsu Shuppansha, 1985. *''Shōji Ōtake kansō jinsei taidan: Bijo to binan ni zūmuin'' (). Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1985. . *''Josei shashin seminā-shū'' (). Tokyo: Nippon Camera-sha, 1989. . *''Shōji Ōtake sakuhinshū: Haruka naru uta'' (). JCII Photo Salon Library 8. Tokyo: JCII Photo Salon, 1991. Exhibition catalogue. *''Asakura Miki'' () / ''Si.'' 1993. Photo book of the singer . Tokyo: Sukora, 1993. . *''Shinpen Haruka naru uta'' (). Tokyo: Nippon Camera-sha, 1993. . *''Sasurai hana'' (). Photo book of the singer . Take Shobō, 1994. . *''Shōji Ōtake sakuhinshū: Shōwa gunzō'' (). JCII Photo Salon Library 75. Tokyo: JCII Photo Salon, 1997. Exhibition catalogue. *''Shōwa gunzō'' () Tokyo: Nippon Camera-sha, 1997. . A collection of Ōtake's black and white portraits from the 1950s to the 1980s, with an emphasis on earlier material. *''Shōji Ōtake no "renzu kansōgaku": Raika renzu to kōseiha renzu'' (). Supplement to ''

,'' December 1998. *''Haruka naru kagami: Aru shashinka no shōgen'' (). Tokyo: Tōkyō Shinbun Shuppankyoku, 1998. . **''Haruka naru kagami: Shashin de tsuzuru haisen-Nihon hiwa'' (). Chūō Bunko. Tokyo: Chūō-Kōron-sha, 2000. . *''Jidai no kao'' (). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 2002. Portraits. *''Akasaka Hinokichō Tekisasu Hausu'' (, Akasaka Hinoki-chō Texas House). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 2006. . Text and photographs by Ōtake, who looks back at his time with the television and other stars of the 1960s in an

Asakusa is a district in Taitō, Tokyo, Japan. It is known as the location of the Sensō-ji, a Buddhist temple dedicated to the bodhisattva Kannon. There are several other temples in Asakusa, as well as various festivals, such as the . History The ...

apartment dubbed Texas House. *''Ōtake Shōji no renzu kansōgaku: Kyōrikei-yō renzu hen'' (, Shōji Ōtake's study of the effects of lenses: Lenses for rangefinder cameras). Kurashikku Kamera Sensho 37. Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 2006. .

Other books showing Ōtake's work

*''Nihon nūdo meisakushū'' (, Japanese nudes). ''Camera Mainichi'' bessatsu. Tokyo: Mainichi Shinbunsha, 1982. Pp. 126–29 show nudes by Ōtake, 1949–61. *''Shashinka wa nani o hyōgen shita ka: 1945–1960'' (, What were photographers expressing? 1945–1960). Tokyo: Konica Plaza, 1991. Pp. 70–71 show three portraits of musicians by Ōtake.

Laserdisc

*''Shirubiannu: Ōtake Shōji no sekai'' () / ''Sylviane.''

Notes

Sources

*Jinbō Kyōko (). "Ōtake Shōji". ''Nihon shashinka jiten'' () / ''328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers.'' Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000. . P.71. Despite the English-language alternative title, all in Japanese. *"Nenpu" (, chronology). ''Ōtake Shōji'' (). Shōwa Shashin Zenshigoto 4. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1982. Pp. 158–59.

External links

*Ono, Philbert.
Otake Shoji
. ''PhotoGuide Japan.'' A very brief biography.

at Fujifilm. Click on a photograph's caption to see it enlarged.

at Fujifilm. {{DEFAULTSORT:Otake, Shoji Japanese photographers Portrait photographers Artists from Shizuoka Prefecture People from Kakegawa, Shizuoka 1920 births 2015 deaths Writers on photographic techniques