Kazoku

Masahisa Fukase

Kazoku

Author : Kanat Nimwijitt
Translator : Dr. Wattana K

22 Nov 2020

A soft winter breeze blew across a small photo studio located in a tiny town on a northernmost island of Japan. The wind may send a message of coldness and loneliness to people from out of the island. However, for one man, this winter breeze represented a hug from his father to him, the oldest son who left and lived very far away from home.

Before moving to live and succeeding as a renown photographer in Tokyo, the young Masahisa Fukase lived in this small studio. He was born and brought up here. In the year 1934 and between 1971 and 1989, he came back to record one of his personal and important works. It was a set of photographs under the name Kazoku meaning ‘family,’

Photo from Kazoku (家族, Family) (A.D. 1991)

As the oldest son of his family, his father expected him to take over the family business: this small photo studio. It was a disappointment for a father, though. Fukase became a successful artist and had never come back to his ordinary origin. Decades later, his coming back to take photos in this small studio was a sarcastical redicule added to the history of his life and work. Fukase photographed his family members during important occasions and also put a naked stranger in the picture. He wanted to put small funny gags into what he viewed as boring family photos. This set of family portraits showed an extraordinary side of both the photographers and common family portraits we all got used to.

With new inspiration and energy from the work Kazoku, Fukase furthered his work recording his father’s life and memories through a set of photographs called Memories of Father (1971-1987). He took photos of his father from everyday life to his death and cremation ceremony. Fukase commented on this piece of work as:

“ every member of the family whose inverted image I capture on the film inside my camera will die. The camera catches them, and in that instant it is a recording instrument of death. ” – Masahisa Fukase

In 1989, his family fell apart: his father passed away two years before, his mother stayed at a nursing home and his younger brother got divorced. The 80-year-old photo studio stopped the business at the same time he completed his work starting 18 years ago. Through his family portraits of all his family members, he established a milestone for his family existence to tell people that, “Once they used to live here and be like this.”