Toyoko Tokiwa (
Life and career
editToyoko Tokiwa (
Tokiwa graduated from Tokyo Kasei-Gakuin (the predecessor of Tokyo Kasei-Gakuin Junior College) in 1951.[3] She started work as an announcer but dreamt of being a photographer instead, joining the women-only Shirayuri Camera Club (
Some of Tokiwa's earliest photographs are of Ōsanbashi, the pier in Yokohama at which American ships docked and that was thus the site of emotional partings and reunions of American military families. She was able to photograph close up without attracting any comment, and greatly enjoyed the work.[4] But she quickly moved to her main interest, working women. Despite an initial hatred of the American military, prompted in particular by her father's death, and revulsion at prostitution, she simply invited herself into the akasen (red-light area) of Yokohama, asked the girls whether she might photograph, and was accepted.[5]
Tokiwa would later marry an amateur photographer, Taikō Okumura (
She was a member of the Japan Professional Photographers Society[9] and chaired the Kanagawa Prefectural Photographers Association (
Kiken na Adabana
editIn 1956 Tokiwa held an exhibition titled Hataraku Josei (
In 1957, her book Kiken na Adabana (
- Kiken na adabana (as explained above)
- Fāsutofurekkusu kara Kyanon made (i.e. "From Firstflex to Canon"; the Firstflex was a brand of twin-lens reflex camera made by Tokiwa Seiki,
常盤 精機 ) - Kōfuku e no iriguchi no aru ie (i.e. "A house with an entrance to happiness")
Each of these is further subdivided into short essays. The text is in the first person and often about Tokiwa herself: the (composite) cover photograph and the photograph in the frontispiece both show Tokiwa holding a Canon rangefinder camera, in a period when photography was very much a male pursuit in Japan.[n 4]
The text of the book is interrupted by four sections of photographs, taken between 1952 and 1957 (captions and technical data appear on pp. 242–241[n 5]). There is a title on the first photograph of each; these are:
- Aru machi no kurai onna no iru fūkei (i.e. "The dark scenery with women of a certain Japanese town"). Mostly street scenes within this town (Yokohama) many showing girls and US servicemen. On pp. 44–45 appears Tokiwa's most famous photograph,[n 6] taken in Wakaba-chō Bā-gai (
若葉 町 バー街 , bar street), behind Isezakichō,[5] showing a girl held down by a foreign man while another in uniform looks away. - Kiken na hakimono (i.e. "Dangerous footwear"). The opening photograph shows geta and sandals discarded at the entrance to a hospital; the photographs that follow show girls waiting for or having injections and mandatory checks of freedom from venereal diseases.
- Fāsutofurekkusu kara Kyanon made (as explained above). A complex series: foreign visitors to Japan, ama, nude modelling, and chindon'ya.
- Kōfuku e no iriguchi no aru ie (as explained above). Happier scenes of young women – although the series ends with the scene shown within the lens on the cover.
Kōtarō Iizawa calls the book "the strongest, most compassionate work by female photographer of that era."[11]
Television work
editFrom 1962 to 1965 Tokiwa produced the television series Hataraku Josei-tachi (
Other photography and publications
editTokiwa photographed around US military bases in Yokosuka (1958) and the Ryūkyū islands (1960), the Soviet Union (1974, and Taiwan and Malaysia (1975–80). Since 1985, she worked on issues involving the elderly.[5]
No book has yet (early 2010) been devoted to the later work of Tokiwa, but from the 1950s until the 1970s her work appeared in the magazines Asahi Camera, Camera Mainichi, Nippon Camera, Sankei Camera, and Shashin Salon .[3]
In November 2010, when she spoke (on the 23rd) to the Japan Professional Photographers Society's 60th anniversary photo exhibition "Women" in Yokohama[12] to an audience of about a hundred on her early days as a photographer, she was living in Yokohama and working on photographing people with Alzheimer's disease.[13]
Other work
editIn 1967 Tokiwa joined a committee choosing work for exhibition by Kanagawa Prefecture, and in 1987 she taught at Fujisawa Bunka Sentā (Fujisawa, Kanagawa).[14]
Exhibitions
editIn 1957, Tokiwa joined Tōmatsu, Narahara and others in the first exhibition of Jūnin no Me (10
The 3rd Month of Photography Tokyo showcased a variety of photograph exhibitions at various galleries in Tokyo in 1998. The main theme was "The Eye of Women Photographers" (Josei Shashinka no Manazashi), and it exhibited photographs by Tokiwa and other established Japanese women photographers of the 1945–1997 period.[15]
Tokiwa joined the Yokohama Photo Triangle exhibition in 2009, held as a part of the 150th anniversary of the opening of the port of Yokohama, where she also organized a civic participation program.[6]
Permanent collections
editBooks by Tokiwa
edit- Kiken na Adabana (
危険 な毒 花 ).[n 3] Tokyo: Mikasa Shobō, 1957. (in Japanese) - With Taikō Okumura (
奥村 泰宏 ). Sengo 50-nen: Yokohama Saigen: Futari de Utsushita Haisen Sutōrī (戦後 50年 横浜 再現 二人 で写 した敗戦 ストーリー).[n 8] Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1996. ISBN 4-582-27733-0. (in Japanese) Photographs of Yokohama after the war; pp. 3–95 show Okumura's work, pp. 96–143 show Tokiwa's. - Watashi no naka no Yokohama Densetsu: Tokiwa Toyoko Shashinshū 1954–1956 (わたしの
中 のヨコハマ伝説 常盤 とよ子 写真 集 1954–1956) / A Collection of Photographs by Toyoko Tokiwa. Yokohama: Tokiwa Toyoko Shashin Jimusho, 2001. (in Japanese) Photographs of Yokohama, 1954–56.
Further reading
edit- Iizawa Kōtarō (
飯沢 耕 太郎 ). Shashin to Kotoba: Shashinka Nijūgo-nin, Kaku Katariki (写真 とことば写真 家 二 十 五 人 、かく語 りき). Shūeisha Shinsho. Tokyo: Shūeisha, 2003. ISBN 4-08-720176-7. Pages 91–97 are devoted to Tokiwa. - Matsumoto Norihiko (
松本 徳彦 ). "Gun-kichi-mondai ni idomu: Saeki Yoshikatsu to Tokiwa Toyoko" (軍 基地 問題 にいどむ—佐伯 義勝 と常盤 とよ子 と). Pp. 35–40 of Shōwa o Toraeta Shashinka no Me: Sengo-Shashin no Ayumi o Tadoru (昭和 をとらえた写真 家 の眼 戦後 写真 の歩 みをたどる). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1989. ISBN 4-02-258453-X.
Notes
edit- ^ As stated in an Asahi Shinbun article cited above; additionally, the Kanagawa Shinbun Kanaroko article cited above states that she was 91 at the time of her death. However, Moriyama (Nihon shashinka jiten) says 15 January 1930. A birth year of 1930 is widely stated, even in at least one academic paper devoted to Tokiwa (
三浦 雅弘 (24 March 2014). "常盤 とよ子 の視線 ".応用 社会 学 研究 . 56. Rikkyo University: 63–70.). 「常盤 とよ子 」, pp.341–342 within東京 都 写真 美術館 監修 , 『現代 写真 人名 事典 』 (Tokyo: Nichigai Associates, 2005; ISBN 978-4-8169-1949-7), which might be expected to be authoritative, is silent about the year, let alone date, of birth. (An alternative, English-language title, Biographic Dictionary of Contemporary Japanese Photography, appears within the latter book, whose content is in Japanese only.) - ^ Source for
常盤 トヨ子 is 「常盤 とよ子 」, pp.341–342 within東京 都 写真 美術館 監修 , 『現代 写真 人名 事典 』. Tokyo: Nichigai Associates, 2005. ISBN 978-4-8169-1949-7. In Nihon Shashinka Jiten (2000), Moriyama instead states that it was常盤 刀 洋子 . As both books were edited under the supervision of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, it seems likely that the newer one was compiled with knowledge of the older one and thus that it is more reliable. - ^ a b The title of this book abounds in complications. The first (a trivial one) is that it appears as
危險 な毒 花 (with the older form of the character for ken) on the front and spine of the dust jacket and on the title page, but as危険 な毒 花 (with the newer form) on the spine itself, the half title, the colophon, and the front of the obi. Secondly, the reading of the last two characters of the title is problematic. The book itself does not appear to specify the reading anywhere (even though its colophon gives the reading "Tokiwa"). Japanese dictionaries of Sino-Japanese do not include the combination毒 花 ; dictionaries of Japanese such as Kōjien do not list it under any of its more obvious readings: dokubana, dokuhana, dokuka or dokka. Accounts in Japanese of this book, such as Moriyama's piece in Nihon Shashinka Jiten or Nihon Shashinshi Gaisetsu (日本 写真 史 概説 ; Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1999; ISBN 4-00-008381-3) do not give the reading. Therefore somebody who has to provide a reading for the title will normally just guess or depend on others' guesses, and Kiken na Dokubana and Kiken na Kokuka are attested in OPACs, bibliographic databases and so forth. However, the "ruby" あだばな (i.e. adabana) is provided for the title in the potted chronology for Tokiwa on p.159 of Yokohama Saigen (see "Books by Tokiwa"), and it is highly unlikely that this was done without consultation with Tokiwa herself. Both Kōtarō Iizawa and Luisa Orto specify adabana, although without comment. Iizawa, "The evolution of postwar photography", in Anne Wilkes Tucker et al., The History of Japanese Photography (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003; ISBN 0-300-09925-8), p.217; Orto, "Toyoko Tokiwa", in Orto and Matsuda Takako, "Artist Profiles", in Tucker et al., p.364. The third problem is of how to gloss the title in English. Iizawa and Orto do so as "Dangerous fruitless flowers". Adabana indeed means "fruitless flower(s)", but it is normally written徒花 and does not imply toxicity. By metaphorical extension, it can mean "prostitute(s)". Adabana is sometimes written仇 花 , in which the character for ada means "harm" or "malice" (in addition to "enemy", etc.). Meanwhile, the character毒 does mean "toxicity". Thus the title means "Dangerous fruitless flowers", "Dangerous prostitutes", "Dangerous toxic flowers", or similar. - ^ "Until the 1980s there were few successful female photographers [in Japan]." Anne Wilkes Tucker, "Introduction", Tucker et al., p.12. Tucker then mentions and alludes to several who preceded Tokiwa.
- ^ Not a mistake; as this is a two-page island of horizontal writing within a book whose text is otherwise vertical, it is paginated backwards.
- ^ This is reprinted in for example Iizawa, "The evolution of postwar photography", in Tucker et al., p.236.
- ^ As implied by her inclusion, without a qualifying note, within the book Nihon Shashinka Jiten / 328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers.
- ^ Another problematic title. All three ingredients appear on the cover, the title page, and the colophon, but the question of which way around they should go is unclear. In this list, they follow the order in the colophon.
References
edit- ^
松沢 奈々子 ,戦後 占領 下 の横浜 を活写 横浜 で常盤 とよ子 さん追悼 展 , Asahi Shinbun, 13 September 2020. Accessed 10 August 2021. - ^
常盤 とよ子 さん死去 91歳 女性 写真 家 の草分 け, Kanagawa Shinbun Kanaroko, 26 December 2019. Accessed 10 August 2021. - ^ a b c d e f g h Tomoe Moriyama (
森山 朋絵 ), "Tokiwa Toyoko", Nihon Shashinka Jiten (日本 写真 家 事典 ) / 328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers (Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000; ISBN 4-473-01750-8), p.221. (in Japanese) Despite the English-language alternative title, in English only. - ^ a b c d Interview with Tokiwa, Nakahō Nyūsu (
中 法 ニュース) no. 5435 (March 2004), Yokohama Naka Hōjinkai. (in Japanese) Accessed 9 January 2011. - ^ a b c d Noriko Tsutatani (
蔦谷 典子 ), "Tokiwa Toyoko", in Kōtarō Iizawa, ed., Nihon no Shashinka 101 (日本 の写真 家 101; Tokyo: Shinshokan, 2008; ISBN 978-4-403-25095-8), pp. 92–93. - ^ a b "Yokohama kaikō 150-shūnen kinen: Yokohama Foto Toraianguru: Kaikō kara mirai e" (
横浜 開港 150周年 記念 ヨコハマ・フォト・トライアングル開港 から未来 へ), Art Yokohama (Yokohama Civic Art Gallery), vol. 40, 1 October 2009, p.5. (in Japanese) Accessed 9 January 2011. - ^ Nihon no shashinka: Kindai shashinshi o irodotta hito to denki, sakuhinshū mokuroku (
日本 の写真 家 近代 写真 史 を彩 った人 と伝記 ・作品 集 目録 ) / Biographic Dictionary of Japanese Photography (Tokyo: Nichigai Associates, 2005; ISBN 4-8169-1948-1), p.105. (in Japanese) In Japanese only, despite the English title. - ^ Hatsuo Ueno (
上野 初雄 ), "Okumura Taikō shashinchō: Hama no shashin no monogatari Archived 2012-07-23 at archive.today" (奥村 泰宏 写真 帳 ハマの写真 の物語 ), General Affairs Bureau, Yokohama City, November 1990. (in Japanese) Accessed 9 January 2011. - ^ Toyoko Tokiwa - Copyright holder profile Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine (
常盤 とよ子 -著作 権 者 プロフィール), Japan Photographic Copyright Association. (in Japanese) Accessed 9 January 2011. - ^ Page about the Association Archived 2011-07-23 at the Wayback Machine, Kanagawa Pioneer Station, Kanagawa Prefectural Government. (in Japanese) Accessed 9 January 2011.
- ^ Iizawa, "The evolution of postwar photography", in Tucker et al., p.217.
- ^ The event, Nihon Shashinka Kyōkai sōritsu 60-shūnen kinen shashinten "Onna: Tachidomaranai josei-tachi" (
日本 写真 家 協会 創立 60周年 記念 写真 展 「おんな――立 ち止 まらない女性 たち」), is described here and here within the website of the Japan Professional Photographers Society. Both pages accessed 9 January 2011. - ^ "Yokohama zaijū no shashinka Tokiwa Toyoko san" (
横浜 在住 の写真 家 ・常盤 とよ子 さん), Mainichi Shimbun-Kanagawa, 24 November 2010. (in Japanese) Available here within the site of Asakura Dezain Kōbō (朝倉 デザイン工房 ). Accessed 9 January 2011. - ^ a b Shashinka wa Nani o Mita ka: 1945–1960 (
写真 家 はなにを見 たか1945~1960, What did photographers see: 1945–1960; Tokyo: Konica Plaza, 1991), pp. 122–123. (in Japanese) OCLC 47616918, National Diet Library 000002144030 - ^ Philbert Ono, "PhotoHistory 1998", Photoguide.jp. (in English) Accessed 9 March 2009.
- ^ Iizawa, "The evolution of postwar photography", in Tucker et al., pp. 236–37.
- ^ Norihiko Matsumoto, ed., Nihon no Bijutsukan to Shashin Korekushon (
日本 の美術館 と写真 コレクション, Japan's art galleries and photography collections; Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2002; ISBN 4-473-01894-6), p.163. (in Japanese) - ^ List of 2003 exhibits from the gallery's collection Archived 2012-12-20 at archive.today, Yokohama Civic Art Gallery. (in Japanese) Accessed 9 January 2011.