Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the complex relationship between gender systems and women’s experiences in contemporary Japanese photography. In particular, it looks at gender labels, such as onna no ko shashin (girls’ photography), and the impact these terms continue to have on photography culture today.

Paper long abstract:

Women have been active as professional and amateur photographers in Japan since photography’s introduction in the 19th century, yet it is often viewed as an inherently male pursuit. In the 1990s, an apparent sudden increase of young women gaining critical and popular acclaim excited photography critics and the media, with these women being celebrated as a specific photography movement: onna no ko shashin (girls’ photography). Critics like Iizawa Kotaro argued that onna no ko shashin was a specifically female style of photography, and the increase in the numbers of women interested in photography was largely due to the development of simpler, easy to use compact cameras.

In recent years, photographers, critics, and academics have challenged this narrative of a feminine principle of photography and the implication that it is only when photographic equipment becomes easier that women move from photographic subject to photographer. However, terms like onna no ko shashin continue to be used across photography: from visual art institutions and the camera industry, to women-led camera clubs and by women themselves. Given photography’s position as a form of art, journalism, communication, and as part of a global technology industry deeply embedded in daily life, the question thus remains: how do women navigate these gender labels in photography today?

This paper explores this question by examining how terms like onna no ko shashin continue to impact upon women in both professional and amateur photography today. Using photography as a microcosm, this paper demonstrates that these gender labels are the manifestation and communication of social systems that govern gender norms and expectations of women in Japanese society. It will highlight the presence of these labels across a wide range of sectors in photography, the gender stereotypes that are communicated, and women’s interactions with these labels. Crucially, this paper explores how these interactions are far more nuanced and complex than they first appear. As this paper ultimately argues, women actively engage with, rather than passively accept, gender labels, be it as a vehicle to present their art and form photography communities, or to challenge the very gender systems that produce them.

Paper short abstract:

The orthodox definition of collaboration, i.e. "the action of working with someone to produce something", is originally revisited by attaching multiple meanings to that "someone" - other artists, spectators, and different aspects of a troubled mind -, as summarised in the life and works of Kusama.

Paper long abstract:

Kusama Yayoi is a renowned Japanese woman who has redefined the polysemic concept of "collaboration" in the artistic field as her own distinctive and identifying element of her multifaceted career. Collaboration in Kusama's works is defined by:

1. the teamwork with contemporary artists and gallerists, as in the collective exhibition at the Green Gallery in NY (1962).

2. The incorporation of conservative elements of Japanese traditions and their export to the rest of the world, such as torinokogami (Japanese traditional paper), on which she used to draw subjects like pumpkins, or kimono covered with her polka patterns.

3. An open mind towards modernity. Kusama has never been afraid of the unknown, neither of the prejudice of paternalistic, chauvinist social dynamics (like in Japanese arts). She simply expressed herself through art, often using new materials or technologies, atypical dimensions of the artworks or unusual creative processes.

4. The combination of different sides of her psychophysically troubled personality.

5. The harmonious coexistence of all her creative and stylistic phases.

6. The all-encompassing engagement of the viewers. Kusama has very often been able to involve the viewers of her creations by turning them into "users" of her artworks. This way, the spectators can perceive the same sensations experienced by the artist during the creative act, the so-called "flow of consciousness/ optimal experience".

7. The recent partnerships with internationally renowned fashion brands (e.g. Louis Vuitton (2012), Casio (2017) and Veuve Clicquot (2020)).

This research aims to reconceptualize the term "collaboration" in the artistic field through the example of Kusama Yayoi, not limiting it to four-handed artworks, or to interpenetrated creative currents, or to the fusion of different artistic disciplines, but also including the relationship between artist and spectator, the incorporation of tradition and innovation, and the coexistence of the different aspects of a psychically diseased personality through the rediscovered therapeutic function of the arts. The orthodox definition of collaboration, i.e. "the action of working with someone to produce something", is thus originally revisited by attaching multiple meanings to that "someone", as summarised in the life and works of Kusama.

Paper short abstract:

Takamine Hideko starred in a number of films directed by her husband Matuyama Zenzō. Analysing both the films and the two artists' public image, with a focus on their partnership, can help us to gain a better understanding of the perception of each individual's persona and their films.

Paper long abstract:

The public persona of a film star can, as proposed by Richard Dyer in his seminal work Stars (1979), be understood as a "star text" that is constantly constructed and shaped by different texts and contributors, such as the star's public appearances and utterances, the films he or she is featured in, the public discourse about the star and his or her films in the media and among audiences, and the role of the industry presenting films and star in publicity material.

When analysing Takamine Hideko's star persona we can identify a number of key elements signifying the actor's agency in playing an active and conscious role in contributing to its construction. One of these elements is her relationship to her husband Matuyama Zenzō. Their marriage in 1955 was picked up in the news as a love marriage based on Takamine choosing a relatively unknown assistant director. Consequently, the partnership between Takamine and Matsuyama, who would become a director in his own right and make a number of films featuring Takamine in the lead role, was shaped by the idea of a marriage between two professionals collaborating both at home and at work as equal partners. Films which they created together as a 'team' include "Namonaku mazushiku utsukushiku" (Happiness of Us Alone, 1961) telling the story of a hearing-impaired couple expressing their love and managing the hardships of their life through sign language or "Sanga ari" (The Bridge Between, 1962) telling the experience of Japanese immigrants to Hawaii before, during and after the Second World War. Analysing these films and the two artists' public image, with a focus on their collaboration, can therefore help us to gain a better understanding of both: firstly, the public image of the two stars as a couple at home and in the film studio; and secondly, the perception of their films, as influenced by the public awareness of the two artists' teamwork.