Hitomi Watanabe "Tokyo University 1968-1969ーBehind the Blockade"

Dates: January 9 (Fri) — January 31 (Sat), 2015

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1968 was a year of instability - with the prolonged Vietnam war, student protests in Paris, repression of Czechoslovakia by those countries which were shaken by the “Prague Spring”. America saw the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. On the other hand, the Apollo mission landed on the moon the following year.
1968 was also the year I began photography. I wandered around downtown Shinjuku with a camera, capturing people and whatever caught my attention. One night, I came across a crowd causing great turmoil in Shinjuku. I learned that it was an international anti-war protest. Before that, the Vietnam War had seemed to me merely information transmitted from the media, but I felt its reality after joining the protest. As the Riot Police searchlight lit up students' helmets in the heaving crowd, their silhouettes would shiver violently. Student Power in Japan became a powerful tide fighting against society.
Around that time, I stepped foot into Tokyo University's Hongo Campus for the first time, and met Yoshitaka Yamamoto, who was then representative of Todai Zen-kyoto. He inspired me. It was he who made me so determined to document the Todai protests. Inside the barricades actually was an open space, into which non-local students, the general public and even high school students could go.
Forty-seven years have now passed since then, and some memories are dimming - but film creates new memory. The spirit of Zen-kyoto is brought back to life.

ーHitomi Watanabe

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Artist Profile

Hitomi WATANABE

Hitomi Watanabe graduated from Tokyo College of Photography [Tokyo Sogo Shashin Gakko] in 1968. She presented her works titled “World of the Street Hawkers” in her graduating exhibition, and continued photographing and publishing the series in magazines such as “Shashin Graphic” and “Shashin Eizo”. Around the same time, when she was taking photos in the streets of Shinjuku, she encountered and began documenting the Zen-kyoto student movement. In 1972, she began travelling through Asia. During her visit to India and Nepal, she felt she had found the home of her soul, and decided extend her stay. Since returning to Japan, her photography has become essentially a spiritual documentation aimed at conveying a message to the living spirits. Her publications include “Tenjiku” (Yasosha, 1983), “Mohita’s Dream Journey” (Kaiseisha, 1986), “The Era of Monkeys” (Shinchosha, 1994), “Myths of the West” (Chuokoronsha, 1997), “Open, Lotus” (Shuppanshinsha, 2001), “The Monkey Philosopher” (Shuppanshinsha, 2003), “Photo Documentation: Todai Zenkyoto 1968–69” (Shinchosha, 2005), “1968 Shinjuku” (Machikarasha, 2014), “Tokyo University 1968–1969—Behind the Blockade” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2015), “Tekiya” (Jiyusha, 2017), and “Lotus” (Yasosha, 2024). Watanabe’s solo exhibitions “Early Works: Seasons of Zenkyōtō” were held at Nikon Salon Ginza and Nikon Salon Osaka in 2007. She participated in different group exhibitions including “1968 in Japanese Photography” at Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in 2013; “1968: A Time Filled with Countless Questions” at National Museum of Japanese History in 2017; “1968: Art in the Turbulent Age” at Chiba City Museum of Art in 2018; “Provoke: Opposing Centrism” at Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei National University of the Arts; “Absolute Chairs” at Museum of Modern Art, Saitama. Her works will be shown at the exhibition “I’m So Happy You Are Here — Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now” in the Arles International Festival of Photography in summer 2024.

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