Minayoshi Takada

Minayoshi Takada
高田 皆義
Born1899 (1899)
Nagoya, Japan
Died1982 (aged 82–83)
OccupationPhotographer
Known for
  • Modernist and constructivist photography in Japan
  • Co-founding VIVI
  • Publishing CARNET DE VIVI
Movement

Minayoshi Takada (高田皆義, Takada Minayoshi; 1899-1982) was a Japanese photographer from Nagoya.[1] He has been described as one of the figures who helped drive modernist and constructivist photography in Japan.[1] In the late 1930s, he was active in Nagoya's avant-garde photographic milieu, and after World War II he co-founded the photographic collective VIVI with Kansuke Yamamoto, Keiichirō Gotō, Yoshifumi Hattori, and others.[2][3] Takada also published the first issue of the group's bulletin CARNET DE VIVI in June 1948.[4]

Early career and prewar activity

Takada was active in Nagoya's photographic circles by the late 1930s.[2] In Stojković's account of the Nagoya round-table meeting on avant-garde photography held on 29 December 1938 and published in the February 1939 issue of Kameraman, Takada and Nagata Jirō were identified as "editors", placing Takada among the local figures involved in contemporary debates over zen'ei shashin ("avant-garde photography").[2] The Nagoya City Art Museum annual report for the exhibition "The Story of the 'Capital of Photography': A History of Photography Movements in Nagoya, 1911-1972" also lists several of Takada's prewar works as having been reproduced in Kameraman, including Woman (1937), At the Seaside (1938), Summer Woman (1939), and still-life studies from 1938-39.[5]

VIVI and postwar avant-garde photography

After the war, Takada became one of the founding members of VIVI, a Nagoya-based avant-garde photography group formed in 1947 with Yamamoto, Gotō, Hattori, and others.[3] MEM's exhibition summary on the Nagoya avant-garde describes the formation of VIVI as part of the revival of avant-garde photography in the city under postwar conditions.[3] Through VIVI, Takada became part of the same postwar Nagoya network that linked Yamamoto to a renewed phase of experimental photographic practice.[3]

CARNET DE VIVI

Takada published the first issue of CARNET DE VIVI in June 1948.[4] The Nagoya City Art Museum annual report records the item as VIVI-sha's bulletin, issued by Takada in a four-page folded booklet format.[4] The bulletin provides documentary evidence of Takada's role in the publishing activity of the group as well as its exhibition activity.[4]

Position in Nagoya photography

Takada is relevant to the history of Photography in Nagoya as a figure linking the late-1930s avant-garde milieu in the city with the postwar activities of VIVI.[2][3] His career is also relevant to accounts of avant-garde photography in Japan, especially those that connect Nagoya-based photographers such as Kansuke Yamamoto to broader histories of experimental and Surrealist-inflected photography.[1][3]

See also

References

  • Nihon shashinka jiten (日本写真家事典) / 328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers. Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000. ISBN 4-473-01750-8. (in Japanese)
  1. ^ a b c The History of Japanese Photography. Yale University Press in association with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. 2003. p. 111. ISBN 0300099258.
  2. ^ a b c d Stojković, Jelena (2020). Surrealism and Photography in 1930s Japan: The Impossible Avant-Garde. Bloomsbury Visual Arts. p. 100.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "The Legacy of Avant-garde Photography in Nagoya, 1930s-50s". MEM. 2025-01-10. Retrieved 2026-03-12.
  4. ^ a b c d "名古屋市美術館年報 令和2年度" [Nagoya City Art Museum Annual Report, FY2020] (PDF). Nagoya City Art Museum (in Japanese). p. 18. Retrieved 2026-03-12.
  5. ^ "名古屋市美術館年報 令和2年度" [Nagoya City Art Museum Annual Report, FY2020] (PDF). Nagoya City Art Museum (in Japanese). pp. 14–15. Retrieved 2026-03-12.

Further reading

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