Kansuke Yamamoto (artist)

He was born in Naka-ku, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan. He was the oldest son of Goro Yamamoto (1880–1941), who was the founding member of Aiyu Photography Club. Goro was running a photo studio and a shop selling cameras in Nagoya.

"Dokuritsu(Independent)"January 1932
Published by Independent Photography Research Association
Cover photo by Kansuke Yamamoto

He encountered surrealism and dadaism through the poetry magazine "cine´" published by Yamanaka Chiruu who was promoting surrealism in Japan. At the age of 15, he started to write poems. He graduated from　the Nagoya Second Commercial School in 1929. That year, he started writing poetry. He left Meiji University School of Arts and letters in Tokyo, where he majored in French Literature before graduation and then went back to Nagoya. In 1931, at the age of 17, he published his works in the Journal "Dokuritsu(Independent)", which was published by "Dokuritsu Shashin Kenkyu Kai(Independent Photography Research Association)".

"The Night's Fountain" Vol.1
1 November 1938
Edited and published by:Kansuke Yamamoto
Photo by Kansuke Yamamoto

"VOU" Vol.30 1940
Cover photo by Kansuke Yamamoto

The oldest of his existing works is called "Aru Ningen no Shisou no Hatten・・・Moya to Shinshitsu(The Developing Thought of a Human...Mist and Bedroom)", which was published in a magazine in 1932. In 1936, he changed his Chinese characters from 勘助(Kansuke) to 悍右(Kansuke). In 1938, he started a surrealist poetry magazine called "Yoru no Funsui(The Night's Fountain)". But the next year, the publication was forced to be discontinued by the authoritative pressure due to　the Peace Preservation Law.

In 1939, he formed a group called "Nagoya Photo Avant-Garde" with Tajima Tsugio, Minoru Sakata, Shimozato Yoshio, and Yamanaka Chiruu, etc. The group applied surrealism into their photographs and their avant-garde photography gathered national attention by some magazines like "Photo Times" and "Camera Art". He became a member of "VOU" in 1939, belonging until it was dissolved in 1972. He also formed "VIVI" (1948–1950), "Bijyutsu Bunka Association, Division of Photography" (1949–1954), "Mado(Windows)"(1953–1958), "Honoo (Flame)" (1955–1961), "Subjective Photography Federation of Japan" (1956), "ESPACE" (1956–1958), "Arukishine" (1958), "Avant-Garde Association of Poets" (1958) and "Nagoya Five" (1963–1964).

He often created works which indicated liberty, antiwar and anti-government in surrealistic ways.

From around 1965 to 1975, he coached the younger generation as an adviser of Chubu Photography Federation of Students.

He also donated his body to science via Nagoya University School of Medicine upon his death and no funeral was held, in accordance with his living will.

• "The Founding and Development of Modern Photography in Japan", Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 1995
• "Surrealism in Japan", Nagoya City Art Museum, 1990
• "Avant-Garde Photography of Nagoya", Nagoya City Art Museum, 1989
• "Yamamoto Kansuke: Conveyor of the Impossible", John Solt and Kaneko Ryuichi, East Japan Railway Culture Foundation, 2001
• "The History of Japanese Photography", Anne Wilkes Tucker, Dana Frs-Hansen II, Dana Friis-Hansen, Kaneko Ryuichi, Takeba Joe, Kotaro Iizawa, Kinoshita Naoyuki, Yale University Press, 2003
• "Drawing Surrealism", Leslie Jones, Isabelle Dervaux, Susan Laxton, Prestel Pub, 2012
• Japan's Modern Divide: The Photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto (2013); Edited by Judith Keller & Amanda Maddox, with contributions by Kotaro Iizawa, Ryuichi Kaneko, Jonathan Reynolds; published by The J. Paul Getty Museum
• "Kansuke Yamamoto", Ryuichi Kaneko, Taka Ishii Gallery, 2017

• Nagoya City Art Museum, Supervised by Hiroshi Kamiya and Minako Tsunoda, Edited by Kazuo Yamawaki, Toshihide Yoshida, Katsunori Fukaya, Satoshi Yamada, Joe Takeba, Minako Tsunoda, Akiko Harasawa and Yuko Ito, "Selected Works from the Collection of Nagoya City Art Museum", Nagoya City Art Museum, 1998
• Shigeichi Nagano, Kōtarō Iizawa, and Naoyuki Kinoshita, "Japanese Photographers Vol.15 Kiyoshi Koishi And Avant-garde Photographs", Iwanami Shoten, Publishers, 1999
• John Solt, Shredding the Tapestry of Meaning: The Poetry and Poetics of Kitasono Katue (1901–1978), Harvard University Press, 1999
• Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, "328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers", Tankosha, 2000
• John Solt（Translator: Tetsuya Taguchi）Edited by: Shūji Takashina, Takayuki Kojima, Ryōsuke Ōhashi, Yūko Tanaka, Noriko Hashimoto, 'On Kansuke Yamamoto', "The Aesthetics of Japan", Vol.35, Toei-sha，2002
• Kazumiki Chiba, ‘YAMAMOTO Kansuke : Conveyor of the Impossible’,"Exhibition Catalogues in the Age of Cross – Cultural and Cross-Genre Studies", Edited by Eiko Imahashi, 2003
• Kotaro Iizawa, "From Eyes to Eyes, Walking Through Photo Exhibitions, 2001–2003", Misuzu Shobo, 2004
• Tetsuya Taguchi, "World of Kansuke Yamamoto, A World-class Photographer", Doshisha, 2005
• Satomi Fujimura, "An Introduction to the History of Photography, Section Two: CREATION, The Opening of Modern Age”, Shinchosha, 2005
• Teruo Ishihara, "RAVINE – Poem & Prose Little Anthology", Silver Paper Pub. Kyoto, 2011
• Kotaro Iizawa, Nobuo Ina, John Szarkowski and Etsuro Ishihara, "The Tales of Syashin (the first volume)：Words by Japanese Photographers 1889–1989", aurastudio, 2012
• Kotaro Iizawa, "Deep Insight! 100 Super Masterpieces of Japanese Photographs", Pie Books, 2012
• Majella Munro, "Communicating Vessels: The Surrealist Movement in Japan 1925–70”, Enzo Arts and Publishing Limited, 2012
• Nobuzo Kinoshita, "The Lives of Prodigy of Tokai", Edited by Shoko Komatsu, Fubaisha, 2013
• Melusine n.36, Editions L'Age d'Homme, 2016 Paris.
• PARIS PHOTO BY KARL LAGERFELD. Production and printing: Steidl, 2017

• Taylor Mignon, "A ‘subversive’ finally brought in from the cold", The Japan Times, 15 August 2001
• John Solt, "Perception, Misperception, Nonperception", Milk Magazine, 2005
• REAR, 'Rediscovery:The History of Photograph of Nagoya', Rear, Vol.14, 2006
• Alissa J. Anderson, "Before and After the Bomb", Santa Barbara Independent, 1 February 2007
• Suzanne Muchnic, "At the Getty, a focus on Asian photographs", Los Angeles Times, 15 April 2009
• Roberta Smith, "Squiggles From the Id or Straight From the Brain", The New York Times, 24 January 2013
• Ánxel Grove, "Exhiben a Hamaya y Yamamoto, dos deslumbrantes fotógrafos japoneses de principios del XX", 20 minutos, 2013
• Claire O'neill, "Japanese Photography: A Tale Of Two Artists", National Public Radio, 12 March 2013
• Marc Haefele, "PHOTOS: Realism meets Surrealism in Getty Japanese photography exhibit", Southern California Public Radio, 27 March 2013
• Richard B. Woodward, "The Realist and the Surrealist", The Wall Street Journal, 3 April 2013
• Meher McArthur, “Japan’s Photographer Reflect the Realities of a Changing World”, Southern California Cultural Journal, KCET, 18 April 2013
• Lauren Russell, "A surreal take on 20th-century Japan", CNN Photos – CNN.com blogs, 6 May 2013
• Danielle Sommer, “From Los Angeles: Japan’s Modern Divide” Archived 8 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine, Art Practical, 6 May 2013
• Bondo Wyszpolski, “Japan’s Modern Divide: the Photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto”, Easy Reader, 12 May 2013
• Catherine Wagley, “Japan’s Modern Divide: the Photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto”, photograph, 28 May 2013
• Smith, Douglas F., “Japan's Modern Divide: The Photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto”, Library Journal;15 June 2013, Vol. 138 Issue 11, p88, 2013
• Leah Ollman, “2 Japanese photographers, 2 cultural camps at Getty Museum”, Los Angeles Times, 22 June 2013
• Colin Pantall, “Japan’s Modern Divide: the Photographs of Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto”, photo-eye Blog, 18 July 2013
• Akiko Horiyama, “Salad Bowl: Surreal Japan”, Mainichi Shimbun, 19 August 2013
• Eiko Aoki, "The Pacific Rim Divide of “Japan’s Modern Divide”, Trans-Asia Photography Review, Hampshire College, Volume 4, Issue 1: Archives, Fall 2013
• Eiko Aoki, “Behind the Folding Screen of “Japan’s Modern Divide” An interview with the curators of the Getty Museum’s Hiroshi Hamaya and Kansuke Yamamoto Photo Exhibit”, Kyoto Journal, vol.79, 23 February 2014
• Montse Álvarez, “Con Kansuke Yamamoto en la penumbra de lo real”, ABC Color, 11 May 2014

• SoCal Japan News Digest, 6 April 2013, UTB Hollywood