was a renowned

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese amateur

photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...

, particularly in the 1930s. was born in

Kumagaya is a city located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 195,277 in 87,827 households and a population density of 1200 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Kumagaya is one of the largest cit ...

, Saitama on 1 November 1911. From the age of thirteen Satō had a Thornton reflex camera; on his graduation from school he took photographs in his free time from his work in a bicycle wholesaler. He was given the ''nom de guerre'' when young. From 1931 his photographs appeared in ''

Camera A camera is an instrument used to capture and store images and videos, either digitally via an electronic image sensor, or chemically via a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. As a pivotal technology in the fields of photograp ...

'' and '' Shashin Geppō,'' and from 1933 in '' Shashin Salon.'' Satō's works were selected for the

Golden Gate International Exposition The Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) was a World's Fair held at Treasure Island in San Francisco, California, U.S. The exposition operated from February 18, 1939, through October 29, 1939, and from May 25, 1940, through September 29, ...

in 1940. After the war, Satō changed the

characters Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to Theoph ...

for Kōji from to . An energetic and widely exhibited portraitist before and during the war, Satō turned his camera to his parents and his children after the war. Satō died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

on 30 May 1955. Some of Satō's photographs are in the permanent collection of 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 ...

, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, and

Shimane Art Museum The opened in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, Japan in 1999. Designed by Kiyonori Kikutake and with a total floor area of 12,500 square metres, it houses a collection of Japanese and Western art, including Momoyama folding screens and paintings by ...

.''The Photographs of Koji Sato.''

Published photographs

*''Nihon kindai shashin no seiritsu to tenkai'' () / ''The Founding and Development of Modern Photography in Japan.'' Tokyo: Tokyo Museum of Photography, 1995. Plate 122: "Man in black cape" (, ''Kuromanto no otoko''), 1937. *''Satō Kōji no shashin'' () / ''The Photographs of Koji Sato.'' N.p.: Kenji Satō, 2001. Captions and text in Japanese and English.

Notes

References

* Kaneko Ryūichi (). "Satō Kōji". ''Nihon shashinka jiten'' () / ''328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers.'' Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000. . Despite the English-language alternative title, all in Japanese. P. 155. * ''Nihon no shashinka'' () / ''Biographic Dictionary of Japanese Photography.'' Tokyo: Nichigai Associates, 2005. . Despite the English-language alternative title, all in Japanese. Pp. 196–7. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sato, Koji Japanese portrait photographers 1911 births 1955 deaths Artists from Saitama Prefecture 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Japan People from Kumagaya