Signed, New

Ishinomaki

Shoko HASHIMOTO

Shortlisted in the Historical Book Award of Les Rencontres d'Arles 2024

Born in 1939, Japanese photographer Shoko Hashimoto has been documenting his hometown of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture over many decades of his life, including the series “Ishinomaki 2011.3.27–2014.5.29” about the period of rebuilding and coming-to-terms following the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the region in 2011.

In “Ishinomaki”, Hashimoto shares some of his earliest photographs of Ishinomaki. Shot between 1955 and 1969, the book pictures life in the port city from the late postwar years until the beginning of Japan’s rising prosperity and economic growth. Even in his late teenage years, Hashimoto shot his street photographs with an incredible eye for compositions and interesting moments.

・Book Size
257 × 182 mm
・Pages
72 pages, 54 images
・Binding
Softcover
・Publication Year
2023
・Language
English, Japanese
・Limited Edition
700
・ISBN
978-4-910244-27-3

Artist Profile

Shoko HASHIMOTO

Born in Ishinomaki in 1939, Hashimoto graduated from Nihon University, College of Art in 1964, specializing in photography. In 1974, he received the Newcomer Award from the Photographic Society of Japan with his photobook “Goze” (Nora-sha). In the same year, the series was selected for the “15 Photographers” exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and collected by the museum. Hashimoto actively photographed Lee Dynasty folk paintings in Korea from 1979 to 1981. He had travelled to Nagano, Yamagata, Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Yamanashi and Miyagi prefectures to document the folk customs of Japan that were gradually disappearing as a photojournalist. Since 2011, he has regularly returned to photograph his hometown, Ishinomaki, which was devastated by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. His recent solo exhibitions include: “Goze” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2013; Zeit-Foto Salon, 2014), “Nishiyama Onsen — Empire of Nakedness” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2014), “A Village Lullaby” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2015), “Biwa Houshi” (Zeit-Foto Salon, 2016), “Literary Scholars” (Sokyusha, 2017), “Goze” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2020), “Goze — Shoko Hashimoto” (Ikeda Art Museum, Niigata, 2022), and “Goze” (AN-A Fundación, Barcelona, 2022). His publications include: “Goze” (Aron Shobo, 1988), “Kitakami River” (Shumpusha, 2014), “Nishiyama Onsen” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2014), “Kitakami River New Edition” (Shumpusha, 2015), “Undergrowth” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2016), “San’ya 1968.8.1–8.20” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2017), “Goze Asahigraph Reprint” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2019), “Goze” (New Complete Edition, Zen Foto Gallery, 2021), and "Ishinomaki" (Zen Foto Gallery, 2023)

Gallery Exhibitions