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A Book of Ken Domon


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DOMON Ken passed away quietly on September 15, 1990 at Toranomon Hospital in Tokyo, after eleven years in the hospital. He never regained consciousness following a stroke, his third, which he suffered in 1979.
He had once said, “Everyone must die. There is nothing you can do about it, and I am certainly going to die one day too. Death and life are absolutes, because they are reality.” One might say that he had submitted to the absoluteness of reality, and had even accepted it serenely. In any case, the realism of DOMON Ken was a pursuit of the absoluteness of “reality” wherever it might lead him. And he held the same view with regard to life and death.

Ken was born the eldest son of DOMON Kumazo, his father, and Tomie, his mother, in the Aioi section of today’s Sakata City, Yamagata Prefecture on October 25, 1909. In naming him “Ken,” which means “fist,” Kumazo hoped that his son would make something of himself, barehanded (tosh-kuken). In Watashi no rirekisyo ( My curriculum vitae ), DOMON describes the landscapes of his formative years. ” I grew up in the embrace of Nature in this northern region, where the winter skies present an unbroken blanket of low-hanging snow clouds and waves crest over the lead-colored Japan Sea, where spring finds the peach, plum and cherry wakening to blossom all at once, and where Mt. Chokai, with its glistening remnants of snow, stands out against the deep blue sky of summer.”

But the environment in which he spent his childhood was by no means cheerful. His parents quarreled constantly, and after they went to Tokyo to try to make a new start, he followed them in 1916, taken there by an uncle.

He graduated from Yokohama Dai-ni Middle School in 1928. At that time DOMON dreamed of becoming a painter, but he happened to see Admonitions of the Imperial Instructress, a painting by Qu Kai Zhi, a famous Chinese painter of the 4th century, and “reached the conclusion that, with my ability, even after a lifetime I would never be as good as that. After a depressing and painful stocktaking, I gave up my dream of becoming a painter and broke all of my brushes” ( Watashi no rirekisho). He eventually got involved in the peasant movement, but after repeated arrests, had no choice but to give up.

This was his second setback, but these experiences had opened his eyes to the contradictions of the social structure. The ground for the ideas about social realism and ethnic realism, which were incorporated in his photographs after the war, was cultivated in this period.

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Kenji Miyazawa Dowa Mura (fairy tale village)

Kenji Miyazawa was a famous Japanese author of children’s literature and poet. Some of his famous works are ‘Night on the Galactic railroad and ‘Gauche and the Cellist’.

The park features a strange experience through surrealistic rooms and buildings, as well as small interwinding paths through the forests surrounding the park. The mysterious rooms at Kenji’s school each explore a new world, from a mirror room to a insect world where size is inverted.

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Kenji’s classrooms are a row of wooden log houses each exhibiting a interesting way to learn about animals, plants, stars and rocks that appear in Kenji Miyazawa’s fairy tales.

Then don’t forget to pop into the last class to buy and take home a gift.

Kenji Miyazawa Dowa Mura is a great family trip when in Iwate where you can get lost in the strange fantasy world.

Text & Photo by Shana L.

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KEN DOMON Memorial Hall (From Museums in Yamagata )

This museum displays the work of world famous photographer Ken Domon. Domon’s powerful masterpieces the “Pilgrimage to Old Temples” and “Hiroshima” series, and his other photographs are on view. The work of top artists, such as the beauty of this building that complements the natural surroundings, the gardens, sculptures and the work’s name plates, all combine to create the artistic space in this museum.
(From the guidebook “Museums in Yamagata”)

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About Ken Domon (1909 〜 1990)
A photographer, born in Sakata City, Ymagata Prefecture. He is a great master who established the realism in the photographic  world. He was in a certain period called a demon for news photographic work and is now well known throughout the world.
” A Pilgrimage through Old Temples”, his lifework, is regarded as the pinnacle among his masterpieces and is followed by the similarly distinguished works, such as “Muroji Temple”, “Hiroshima”, “The Children in Chikuho”, “Bunraku Puppets”, “Features”, “Old Ceramics in Japan”, “Wanderings through Old Kilns”, “Lives of Japanese Master-hands” and many other works. Every work of these is famous respectively as a great monument.
The artistic value of Ken Domon is said to lie in his snappings at the beauties of Japan and minds of the Japanese. His achievements in photography are highly evaluated and he won not only the first Ars Photographic Culture Prize in 1943, but got many excellent prizes. He was decorated in 1972 with a Purple Ribbon Medal, and in 1980 with the Fourth Order of Merit with Minor Cordon of the Rising Sun.
(From a guidebook of Ken Domon Museum of Photography)

Ken Domon Memorial Hall Web