Kansuke Yamamoto(山本 悍右,Yamamoto Kansuke, 30 March 1914 – 2 April 1987) was a photographer and poet. He was a prominent Japanese surrealist born in Nagoya, Japan.
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.
Encounter with Surrealism
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)".
Kansuke Yamamoto as a Surrealist
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.
Later life
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.
1956 - 1961 "Honoo(Flame)" / Konica Gallery(Konica Minolta Plaza), Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya, Japan
1956 "International Subjective Photography" / Takashimaya Gallery, Nihonbashi, Japan
1956 Personal Exhibition / Matsushima Gallery, Ginza, Japan
1956 Personal Exhibition / Maruzen Gallery, Nagoya, Japan
1957 Personal Exhibition / Konica Gallery(Konica Minolta Plaza), Fukuoka, Japan
1957 - 1976 "VOU Exhibition" / Kunugi Gallery, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan etc.
1957 "Modern Art Photography Group" / Kunugi Gallery, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan
1958 "ESPACE" / Maruzen Gallery, Nagoya, Japan
1958 "Exhibition of Japan Subjective Photography" / Fuji Photo Salon(FUJIFILM Photo Salon), Tokyo, Japan
1958 "The Vanguard of Photography and Poetry" / Mimatsu Publishing, Inc. Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1960 "The Sense of Abstraction" / The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, U.S.A.
1960 "Subjective Photography" / Konica Gallery(Konica Minolta Plaza), Tokyo, Japan
1963 "Shusen Kai"
1963 - 1964 "Nagoya Five" / Fuji Photo Salon(FUJIFILM Photo Salon), Tokyo, etc.
1968 "VERB" / Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan
1978 - 1982 "The Exhibition of The Committee of The Chubu Headquarter of The All-Japan Association of Photographic Societies" / Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan
1983 "Pictures of Yamamoto Kansuke" / New French School, Nagoya, Japan
2017 "Kansuke Yamamoto" / Taka Ishii Gallery Photography / Film, Roppongi, Tokyo
2017 Group Exhibition “Japanese Surrealist Photography” / Taka Ishii Gallery Tokyo, Roppongi, Tokyo
2017 Art Basel Hong Kong (Taka Ishii Gallery) / Hong Kong
2017 "Kansuke Yamamoto" / Taka Ishii Gallery New York, New York City
2017 SP-Arte (Taka Ishii Gallery) / Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
2017 Art Basel (Taka Ishii Gallery) / Basel, Switzerland
Solo exhibition catalogues
”YAMAMOTO Kansuke : Conveyor of the Impossible", John Solt and Kaneko Ryuichi, East Japan Railway Culture Foundation, 2001
"YAMAMOTO KANSUKE" STEPHEN WIRTZ GALLERY SAN FRANCISCO 2006
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
Books by Kansuke Yamamoto
Kansuke Yamamoto, “Yoruno Funsui”, 1938-
Kansuke Yamamoto, ”Batafurai (Butterfly)", Nagoya Miniature Books Publishing, 1970
Selected works
The Developing Thought of a Human... Mist and Bedroom, 1932, Kansuke Yamamoto, collage, and gelatin silver print. Collection of Nagoya City Art Museum.
Title unknown, 1933, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 25.2 × 30.0 cm. Private collection, entrusted to Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
Title unknown, 1938, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 18.7 × 24.5 cm. Collection of Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck.
Title unknown, 1938, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 15.9 × 24.6 cm. Collection of Nagoya City Art Museum.
Title unknown, 1939, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 24.4 × 29.6 cm.
Untitled, ca. 1930s, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 43.8 × 36.2 cm. Collection of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser.
Buddhist Temple’s Birdcage, 1940, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 25.7 × 17.9 cm. Private collection, entrusted to Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
Variation of “Buddhist Temple’s Birdcage”, 1940, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 30.2 × 24.8 cm. Collection of Nagoya City Art Museum.
Self-Portrait, 1940, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 46. × 56.4 cm. Private collection, entrusted to Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
Title unknown, ca. 1940s, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 25.2 × 17.7 cm.
View with a Ship Passing Through, 1941, Kansuke Yamamoto, Collage, 24.5 × 30.3 cm. Private collection, entrusted to Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
Stapled Flesh, 1949, Kansuke Yamamoto, gelatin silver print, 31.1 × 24.8 cm. Collection of Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck.
A Chronicle of Drifting, 1949, Kansuke Yamamoto, Collage, 30 × 24.8 cm. Private collection, entrusted to Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
Self-Portrait, 1949, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 25.2 × 17.9 cm. Private collection, entrusted to Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
Scenery with Ocean, 1949, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 27.0 × 18.4 cm.
Gorgeous Departure, 1950, Kansuke Yamamoto, 27.8 × 22.7 cm.
Reminiscence, 1953, Kansuke Yamamoto, gelatin silver print. Collection of Anne and David Ruderman.
Relaxation Season, 1953, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 27.5 × 22.9 cm. Private collection, entrusted to Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
Sleepy Sea, 1953, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 27.6 × 31.0 cm.. Private collection, entrusted to Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
Giving Birth to a Joke, 1956, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 42.5 × 55.6 cm. Private collection, entrusted to Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
Rose and Shovel, 1956, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 31.9 × 34.9 cm. Private collection, entrusted to Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
The Distance between the Landscape and the Dusk, 1956, Kansuke Yamamoto, Chromogenic print, 31.9 × 34.9 cm.
My Thin-Aired Room, 1956, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 34.9 × 42.9 cm. Private collection, entrusted to Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
My Thin-Aired Room, 1956, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 35.2 × 42.2 cm. Private collection, entrusted to Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
My Thin-Aired Room, 1956, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 35.4 × 43 cm. Private collection, entrusted to Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
My Thin-Aired Room, 1956, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 35.2 × 42.9 cm. Private collection, entrusted to Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
The Man Who Went Too Far, 1956, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print. Private collection, entrusted to Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
Cold Person, 1956, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 43.8 × 36.2 cm. Collection of Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck.
From the series of “Obaku”, 1956, Kansuke Yamamoto.
The Origin of History, 1956, Kansuke Yamamoto, Chromogenic print, 52.5 × 47.8 cm.
The Closed Room, 1958, Kansuke Yamamoto, Gelatin silver print, 35.9 × 45.0 cm.
A Forgotten Person, 1958, Kansuke Yamamoto, Chromogenic Print, 46.2 × 33.0 cm. Collection of J. Paul Getty Museum.
(The hard, cobalt desert...), 1958, Kansuke Yamamoto.
My Bench, 1963, Kansuke Yamamoto.
I’d Like to Think While in the Body of a Horse, 1964, Kansuke Yamamoto, Chromogenic Print, 46.2 × 33.0 cm. Collection of J. Paul Getty Museum.
Butterfly, 1970, Kansuke Yamamoto. Private collection, entrusted to Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
The silver platter and the pigeon in the cage, / We suddenly have spring rain like typefaces today. / Cioran, / I may talk to you again someday, 1979, Kansuke Yamamoto.
Under rose flowers of exploding black gunpowder / Girl flutters her braided hair running to the plaza / Dawn laughs out loud swaying its shoulders, 1983, Kansuke Yamamoto. Private collection, entrusted to Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.