Photography in Practice to Face the Common and Pass on to Posterity: Shōmei Tōmatsu’s Reflective Practices in Okinawa Before and After the Reversion

Abstract

Photographer Shōmei Tōmatsu captured the lives of the people in Okinawa from the late 1960s for decades, especially when the islands were still under American administration. Additionally, a review of previous research suggests that the realities he depicted around the time of the reversion of Okinawa were stereotyped as one of the prevailing expressions that valued daily life around 1970, due to the backlash against mainstream journalism. However, the importance of his reflective practices in Okinawa as a mainlander has been underestimated. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to describe what photographic expression meant to him at the time, based on our original methodology of “photography in practice” (shashin-jissen). The findings indicate that Tōmatsu documented the way of life of each individual based on empathy, deepening his understanding of the island’s ethos. Given the circumstances of the same period when the freedom of expression was threatened by the state or commercialism, it is noteworthy that he emphasized the spirit of amateurism. Overall, for Tōmatsu, photography was a form of expression driven by his feelings toward modern society, which included the hope to inspire future generations.