Taikichi Irie (入江 泰吉, ''Irie Taikichi'') (November 5, 1905 – January 16, 1992) 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 ...
. He concentrated on Yamatoji (historical sites of
Nara Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Nara Prefecture has a population of 1,321,805 and has a geographic area of . Nara Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Osaka Prefecture to the northwest, Wakayama P ...
) and Buddhist statues.
Biography
Irie was born in
Nara
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...
. He started photography in his teens, influenced by a brother. He began work in a camera store in
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. ...
in 1925 and in 1931 set up his own company in Osaka, Kōgeisha (光芸社). They did product and advertising photography and sold photographic goods. He started taking photographs of ''
bunraku'' in 1939 and in 1942 had his first solo exhibition (in Osaka), of ''
bunraku'' puppets. His house in Osaka was destroyed in a bombing of 1945, and he escaped to his family home in Nara.
Irie's photographs of Buddhist imagery were published as early as the early 1940s, and in 1958 he embarked on what would be a stream of books of such photographs, which had commercial success.
In April 1992, three months after Irie died, a museum largely devoted to his works was set up in Nara, the
Irie Taikichi Memorial Museum of Photography Nara City
opened in Nara, Japan, in 1992. Located near Shin-Yakushi-ji and designed by Kishō Kurokawa, the Museum was formerly known as the . The collection includes the complete oeuvre of Irie Taikichi (1905 – 1992), some 80,000 works; a set of 1,025 ...
.
Selected works
* ''Bunraku'' (文楽). Tokyo: Sōgensha, 1954.
* ''Tōdaiji'' (東大寺). Nihon no Tera 1. Tokyo: Bijutsu Shuppansha, 1958.
* ''Yamatoji'' (大和路). 2 vols. Tokyo: Sōgensha, 1958, 1960.
*''Butsuzō no hyōjō'' (仏像の表情). Tokyo: Jinbun'ōraisha, 1964.
*''Koshiki Yamatoji'' (古色大和路). Tokyo: Hoikusha, 1971.
*''Tōshō Daiji'' (唐招提寺). Tokyo: Mainichi Shinbunsha, 1973.
*''Yamato no matsuri'' (大和の祭り). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1974.
* ''Irie Taikichi'' (入江泰吉, Taikichi Irie).
Nihon no Shashinka 10. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1997. . A concise survey.
*''Irie Taikichi no Yamatoji'' (入江泰吉の大和路). Tokyo: Shōgakkan.
**1. ''Koji to mihotoke'' (古寺とみほとけ). 1996. .
**''Kodō to nobotoke'' (古道と野ぼとけ). 1996. .
References
*
Matsumoto Norihiko (松本徳彦), ed. "Nara-shi Shashin Bijutsukan". ''Nihon no bijutsukan to shashin korekushon'' (日本の美術館と写真コレクション, Japan's art galleries and photography collections). Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2002. . Pp. 100–103.
* "Irie Taikichi". ''Nihon shashinka jiten'' (日本写真家事典) / ''328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers.'' Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000. . P. 51.
* ''Shashinka wa nani o hyōgen shita ka: 1945–1960'' (写真家はなにを表現したか1945～1960, What were photographers expressing: 1945–1960). Tokyo: Konica Plaza, 1991. Pp. 130–31.
* ''Shashinka wa nani o hyōgen shita ka: 1960–1980'' (写真家はなにを表現したか1960～1980, What were photographers expressing: 1960–1980). Tokyo: Konica Plaza, 1992. Pp. 76, 94–5.
1905 births
1992 deaths
Japanese photographers
People from Nara, Nara
{{Japan-photographer-stub