Background
Kansuke Yamamoto was born in 1914 on March 30 in Nagoya, Japan in the family of Goro Yamamoto, a co-founder of Aiyu Photography Club. Kansuke’s father had a photo studio and a store vending cameras.
Kansuke Yamamoto was born in 1914 on March 30 in Nagoya, Japan in the family of Goro Yamamoto, a co-founder of Aiyu Photography Club. Kansuke’s father had a photo studio and a store vending cameras.
Kansuke Yamamoto attended the Nagoya Second Commercial School and finished it in 1929.
He also studied French Literature at Meiji University School of Arts and letters in Tokyo from 1931, but left the institution before receiving his degree.
The young Yamamoto got acquainted with surrealist and dadaist styles due to the poetry magazine "cine´" by Yamanaka Chiruu. The first Yamamotos’ poems appeared when he was fifteen-year old.
Kansuke Yamamoto started his career in 1931 from the publication of his works in the Journal "Dokuritsu" (Independent) published by the Independent Photography Research Association called "Dokuritsu Shashin Kenkyu Kai".
One year later, Yamamoto created "Aru Ningen no Shisou no Hatten... Moya to Shinshitsu" (The Developing Thought of a Human...Mist and Bedroom), the earliest of his existing works.
The year of 1938 was marked by the foundation of Yamamoto’s surrealist poetry magazine dubbed "Yoru no Funsui" (The Night's Fountain)". Unfortunately, it was closed the following year by the authorities according to the Peace Preservation Law.
The same year, Kansuke Yamamoto gathered such artists as Tajima Tsugio, Minoru Sakata, Shimozato Yoshio, and Yamanaka Chiruu in the surrealist group of photographers called "Nagoya Photo Avant-Garde". The creations of the artists were noticed by several magazines including "Photo Times" and "Camera Art".
At the end of his life, Yamamoto transmitted his knowledge to the younger generation working as an adviser of Chubu Photography Federation of Students from 1965 to 1975.
Kansuke Yamamoto was a prolific surrealist artist, one of the leading Japanese avant-gardists who created many remarkable pieces of art in a visual field as well as in poetry. All Yamamoto’s career was a continuous artistic experiment – he worked with architectural pictures, still-lives and collages. One of the most famous of such experiments became his Reminiscence of 1953.
During his life, the artist had a lot of exhibitions, most of which were organized in Japan, but some in the United States and France. Among the museums and galleries which preserve his works nowadays, are Nagoya City Art Museum, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography in Japan, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, The J. Paul Getty Museum and The Art Institute of Chicago in the United States.
Many magazines, journals and groups Yamamoto founded, including "VIVI" (1948–1950), "Mado" (Windows) (1953–1958), "Subjective Photography Federation of Japan" (1956), "Nagoya Five" (1963–1964) and others, were the pioneers of bringing surrealism in Japan through poetry, prose and essays.
A great number of Kansuke Yamamoto masterpieces were incorporated in the book Japan’s Modern Divide: The Photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto published in 2013.
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Map Of Labyrinth
Glass Bouquet
Hiroshima
The Man Who Went Too Far
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Two Women
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Work
In Kobe
Window
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Premonition of Genocide
The Semitransparent City
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Anxious Corridor
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Kansuke Yamamoto remained a nonconformist all his life. So, through his works, the artist criticized the society, war and government celebrating liberty of expression.
According to Kansuke Yamamoto's will, his body was donated to Nagoya University School of Medicine after his death.
He was a photographer.
