Tokyo in 1953

東京1953年

by
木村伊兵衛╱Ihei Kimura

Postwar Tokyo in 1953—caught between recovery and growth—was the perfect stage for Ihei Kimura’s Leica-born realism. Long before “street photography” became a genre, Kimura championed the small camera’s agility, turning everyday life in the shitamachi into the core of Japanese photographic modernity. Mainstream magazines like Asahi Camera carried this vision to a broad readership, making realism a public language. Read “Tokyo 1953” as the convergence of author + magazine culture + urban daily life at a pivotal moment of the Shōwa era.

After Kimura’s death in 1974, the Kimura Ihei Award (est. 1975 by Asahi Shimbun) institutionalized this ecosystem of publishing and exhibition, continually renewing his legacy through new voices each year.