Tsugaru Ichiro Kojima

This is "Tsugaru", the only photobook published during the lifetime of Ichirō Kojima, a photographer who, despite working for only about a decade, left an enduring mark on the history of Japanese photography.

After serving in the war, Kojima returned home with a weary spirit. It was through his camera that he rediscovered the stark beauty of his birthplace, Aomori, with its severe climate and landscapes. His work caught the attention of Yōnosuke Natori, the pioneering photographer who had studied photojournalism in Germany and helped introduce the concept to Japan. Natori praised Kojima for his “eye that finds the extraordinary in the ordinary, and the skill to make powerful images from seemingly commonplace angles.”

With Natori’s support, Kojima held a solo exhibition in Ginza, Tokyo, and published his photobook "Tsugaru" in 1963. Hoping to further his career, he moved to Tokyo, but found it difficult to adapt to the restless environment, so different from his hometown. In an effort to break through this stagnation, he traveled to Hokkaido—long a source of fascination for him—to photograph. But the unusually mild winter yielded little of what he sought, and he returned to Aomori. The strain of this trip took its toll, and Kojima passed away soon after, at the young age of thirty-nine.

In this book, Kojima captures the heavy, somber atmosphere of Aomori’s winters through his own darkroom techniques, which he developed to create deep tonal contrasts. The photographs depict unassuming local landscapes, ordinary townspeople, and everyday life. Interwoven with his images are texts by two fellow Aomori natives: the writer Yōjirō Ishizaka and the poet Kyōzō Takagi, known for his work in the Tsugaru dialect. The bold layout combines words and photographs into a single vision.

Even now, more than half a century later, the gravure printing of the 1963 edition—with its distinctive texture and the mellowing of paper over time—continues to enhance the enduring power of Kojima’s work.