Taka Ishii Gallery Kyoto is pleased to present an exhibition of Nakaji Yasui’s work between 25 March and 7 May. This exhibition features 30 works included in Nakaji Yasui Portfolio, published by Taka Ishii Gallery in Autumn 2010.

Nakaji Yasui was active between the 1920s until the early 1940s, and worked primarily in West Japan; he is known as one of the leading figures in Japanese photographic history. During the early period when Japanese photography began to follow global tendencies, Nakaji Yasui enthusiastically engaged with new art theories, considering at an extremely in-depth level how these theories could be relevantly expanded into Japan at the time. Exerting a significant impact on notable contemporary photographers such as Daido Moriyama, Yasui’s extent work provides an important viewpoint in considering the wider spheres of not only photography, but modern artistic practices. In comparison to his contemporaries, he did not produce many works in his lifetime, and only a limited number of prints exist today. However, with the portfolio—in addition to his representative work, Displaced Jews and the Yamane Circus series—we have included thirty modern prints that narrate the photographer’s wide experimentation. This exhibition seeks to reveal a full, vivid portrait of Nakaji Yasui and the essence of his honed art. Also, with the assistance of Nakao Yasui, we will be specially exhibiting an original copy of the collotype printed Nakaji Yasui Complete Works (1942), published immediately after his death.