__NOTOC__ was a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

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 ...

known for his photographs of still lifes and nudes, and also a writer of practical books about photography. Fukuda was born on 11 January 1899 in Nakanoseki (later part of

Hōfu is a city located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. As of September 30, 2016, the city has an estimated population of 117,387 and a population density of 622.44 people per km2. The total area is 188.59 km2. History Hōfu (防府) means "the c ...

), Yamaguchi (Japan). He moved to Tokyo in 1920, and worked at Takachiho Seisakujo (later renamed Olympus), where he worked making thermometers and developed an interest in photography, buying a Vest Pocket Kodak. The 1923 Kantō earthquake impelled him to leave the company and move to

Kansai The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshu, Honshū. The region includes the Prefectures of Japan, prefectures of Nara Prefecture, Nara, Wakayama Prefecture, Wakayama, Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto, Osaka Prefectur ...

. Fukuda ran a photographic studio in

Sakai is a city located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It has been one of the largest and most important seaports of Japan since the medieval era. Sakai is known for its keyhole-shaped burial mounds, or kofun, which date from the fifth century and incl ...

and

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

, but this failed. He then worked as an editorial assistant on

Hakuyō Fuchikami __NOTOC__ (November 14, 1889 – February 8, 1960) was one of the most prominent Japanese photographers in the first half of the 20th century. Biography Fuchikami was born in Kumamoto Prefecture and studied in Saga and Nagasaki. In 1922 Fuc ...

's periodical ''Hakuyō.'' A photograph he took in 1925, shown in an exhibition (titled , ''Nihon Shashin Bijutsutenrankai'') at

Daimaru is a Japanese department store chain, principally located in the Kansai region of Japan. The chain is operated by Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores, a subsidiary of J. Front Retailing. At one time Daimaru was an independent company, , hea ...

department store (Osaka) and elsewhere, won the Ilford Diamond Prize the following year. Fukuda then worked as a commercial photographer in

and

Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...

. Fukuda moved back to Tokyo in 1933, where, influenced by

Modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

trends from Europe (particularly Moholy-Nagy), he pursued a successful career as an advertising photographer. (Other than for a year at Hōfu toward the end of the war, Fukuda stayed in Tokyo for the rest of his life.) A series of photographs 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 ...

'' starting in 1936 and including portraits of

Setsuko Hara Setsuko (written: or in hiragana) is a feminine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, later of Japan *, actress *, Japanese volleyball player *, Japanese actress and model *Setsuko Klossowska de Rola (born 1942), Japane ...

and

Takako Irie was a Japanese film actress. Born in Tokyo into the aristocratic Higashibōjō family (her birth name was ), she graduated from Bunka Gakuin before debuting as an actress at Nikkatsu in 1927. She became a major star, even starting her own produ ...

was very popular, and the next year Fukuda turned this into a book on photographing women that became a best-seller. After the war, Fukuda published collections of nude studies and more books on photographic technique. He also experimented with color. The value he placed on the expression of beauty rendered his work old fashioned with the postwar wave of realism led by photographers such as

Ken Domon is one of the most renowned Japanese photographers of the 20th century. He is most celebrated as a photojournalist, though he may have been most prolific as a photographer of Buddhist temples and statuary. Biography Domon was born in Sakata, Y ...

, and the trends that followed this. In 1974 he was not even among one hundred living photographers profiled in a ''

Camera Mainichi is a Japanese monthly magazine of photography that started in June 1954 and ceased publication in April 1985.Mari Shirayama, "Major Photography Magazines", pp. 378–385 of Anne Wilkes Tucker, ed., ''The History of Japanese Photography'' ...

'' supplement. However, he contributed one volume (''Shōka'' / ''Psalm'') to the popular series "Sonorama Shashin Sensho" in 1979; in an afterword to this, Akira Hasegawa writes:

There are no photographers of women in Japan even today who have not been influenced by Fukuda in one way or another. Many techniques commonly used today were developed by Fukuda, a fact which has been forgotten.

Fukuda continued working in his old age. He died on 26 December 1991. The estimation of his work has since increased, and it is often anthologized in collections of Modernist and mid-century works. A major exhibition of his work was held in the

Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art , in Yamaguchi City is the main art gallery of Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. Opened in 1979, the gallery has a permanent collection, part of which is exhibited at any one time, and also hosts special exhibitions. The gallery's photographic collec ...

in 1994. Works by Fukuda are in the permanent collections of the

National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo The in Tokyo, Japan, is the foremost museum collecting and exhibiting modern Japanese art. This Tokyo museum is also known by the English acronym MOMAT (National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo). The museum is known for its collection of 20th-centu ...

Yokohama Museum of Art , founded in 1989, is located in the futuristic Minato Mirai 21 district of the Japanese city Yokohama, next to the Yokohama Landmark Tower. The collections The museum has works by many influential and well-known modern artists including Constant ...

, and Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art.

Books by Fukuda

* ''Genzō no jissai'' (). ''Asahi Camera'' Sōsha 14. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1937. * ''Onna no utsushikata'' (In newer orthography .) / ''Photokunst von Frauen.'' Tokyo: Ars, 1937. Despite the German-language alternative title, all in Japanese. * ''Haru no shashin-jutsu'' (). Tokyo: Ars, 1938. * ''Watakushi no shashinshū: Sakuga no jissai'' () / ''Meine Foto-bilder.'' Tokyo: Ars, 1938. Despite the German-language alternative title embossed in the cover, all in Japanese. Fifty-eight pages of black and white plates, followed by 84 pages of commentary and advice on photography. * ''Haru no shashinshū'' () / ''Spring Photography''. Tokyo: Ars, 1939. * ''Onna no utsushikata: zoku'' (). Tokyo: Ars, 1939. * ''Seibutsu shashin no tsukurikata'' (). Ars Shashin Bunko 18. Tokyo: Ars, 1939. How to photograph still lifes. * ''Ginza'' (, Ginza). Tokyo: Genkōsha, 1941. With an essay by Tama Morita (). * ''Ushi kau shōgakkō'' (). Tokyo: Genkōsha, 1941. * ''Shuppatsu'' (,In modern script, . Departure). Tokyo: Kōgasō, 1942. A miscellany of photographs: nature, women, still lifes, etc. * ''Jingu Gaien'' (). Tokyo: Nihon Shashin Kōgeisha, 1942. * ''Rafu gotai'' (). Tokyo: Ivuningusutā-sha, 1946. * ''Onna no utsushikata'' (). Tokyo: Seiusha, 1947. A booklet; not the same as the identically titled book published ten years earlier. Photographs of women, clothed and nude. * ''Hana to rafu to'' (, Flowers and nude women) / ''Nude et fleur.'' Tokyo: Ivuningusutā-sha, 1947. Flowers, nude women, their combination, etc. Despite the alternative title, in Japanese only. * ''Shashin geijutsu'' (). Tokyo: Kōgasō, 1949. * ''Iro to hikari no geijutsu: Fukuda Katsuji tennenshoku shashin sakuhinshū'' (). Tokyo: Ondorisha, 1951. * ''Mite wakaru shashin no utsushikata'' (). Tokyo: Onodorisha, 1951. * ''Watakushi-tachi no kimono'' (). Seikatsu Gurabia Sōsho. Tokyo: Ondorisha, 1951. * ''Ginza'' (). Tokyo: Ars, 1952. * ''Onna no utsushikata'' (). Tokyo: Ars, 1955. Special issue of ''

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), ...

'', July. * ''Kamera no sekai'' (). Zusetsu Bunko 32. Tokyo: Kaiseisha, 1957. * ''Atarashiki miwaku'' (). ''

Nippon Camera is a Japanese photography magazine, published between 1950 and 2021. ''Nippon Camera'' started in March 1950 as a bimonthly magazine, published by Kōgeisha (Tokyo) as the successor to the book series ''Amachua Shashin Sōsho'' (1948–49). I ...

'' rinji zōkan. Tokyo: Nippon Camera-sha, 1958. Women (mostly nudes). * ''Kyōto'' () / ''Kyoto.'' Tokyo: Iwasaki Shoten, 1958. * ''Bi no tabiji'' (). Tokyo: Futsūsha, 1962. * ''Shōka'' () / ''Psalm.''

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 ...

19. Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1979. Women (some of them nude), still lifes, and photographs from Fukuda's 1955 travel in Italy. No captions, but with some text in English as well as Japanese. * ''Shashinka Fukuda Katsuji-ten: Kokō no modanisuto'' () / ''Katsuji Fukuda.'' Yamaguchi: Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, 1994. Catalogue of a major exhibition of Fukuda's work held at the

in 1994.

Other books showing works by Fukuda

*Klochko, Deborah, ed. ''Modern Photography in Japan 1915–1940.'' San Francisco: The Friends of Photography, 2001. . The plates are not paginated but are alphabetically ordered by photographer. One still life of Fukuda's from 1925 is shown. *Matsumoto Norihiko. (), ed. ''A Collection of Japanese Photographs 1912–1940.'' Tokyo: Shashinkosha, 1990. Despite its English-only title, the book is in Japanese only. Plate 18 is a still life by Fukuda from 1925. *''Modanizumu no jidai'' () / ''The Age of Modernism.'' Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 1995. Catalogue of an exhibition held 1995–96 at the

Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography The is an art museum concentrating on photography. As the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, it was founded by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and is in Meguro-ku, a short walk from Ebisu station in southwest Tokyo. The museum also ...

. Three still lifes from 1925 on p. 42, a portrait on p. 74. *''Nihon nūdo meisakushū'' (, Japanese nudes). ''Camera Mainichi'' bessatsu. Tokyo: Mainichi Shinbunsha, 1982. Pp. 81–88 show Fukuda's work from 1946 to 1980. *''Nihon kindai shashin no seiritsu to tenkai'' () / ''The Founding and Development of Modern Photography in Japan.'' Tokyo: Tokyo Museum of Photography, 1995. Plates 166 and 167 are of works by Fukuda. *''Nihon no shashin: Uchinaru katachi, sotonaru katachi 2: Sengo shashin no hen'yō: 1945–80'' () / ''Japanese Photography: Form In/Out 2: The Transformation of Photography in the Postwar Era: 1945–80.'' Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 1996. Exhibition catalogue. A nude from 1946 is shown on p. 40. *''Sengo shashin / Saisei to tenkai'' () / ''Twelve Photographers in Japan, 1945–55.'' Yamaguchi: Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, 1990. Despite the alternative title in English, almost exclusively in Japanese (although each of the twelve has a potted chronology in English). Pp. 82–92 show Fukuda's works from 1925 to 1965. *''Shashinka wa nani o hyōgen shita ka: 1945–1960'' (, What were photographers expressing? 1945–1960). Tokyo: Konica Plaza, 1991. Three postwar works and a potted chronology on pp. 48–49.

Notes

References

*Hasegawa, Akira. "Psalm: Katsuji Fukuda." Afterword to Fukuda's book ''Shōka'' / ''Psalm.'' *Matsumoto Norihiko (), ed. ''Nihon no bijutsukan to shashin korekushon'' (, Japan's art galleries and photography collections). Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2002. . *Moriyama Tomoe (). "Fukuda Katsuji". ''Nihon shashinka jiten'' () / ''328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers.'' Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000. . P.267. Despite the English-language alternative title, all in Japanese. *''Nihon no shashinka'' () / ''Biographic Dictionary of Japanese Photography.'' Tokyo: Nichigai Associates, 2005. . Pp. 347–49. Despite the English-language alternative title, all in Japanese. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fukuda, Katsuji Japanese photographers People from Yamaguchi Prefecture Writers on photographic techniques 1899 births 1991 deaths