Yahagi Koichiro (b. 1930)
矢矧幸一郎
Born in Tateyama, a small rural town at the southern tip of Boso peninsula in Chiba Prefecture, at the south end of Tokyo bay, roughly 50 miles from Tokyo.
Koichiro was the eldest son of seven children, and heir to a family tradition of craftsmen specializing in iron scissors. The workshop was founded in Tokyo in the late 19th century.
In 1945, Koichiro as a teenage boy of 15 years eye witnessed American troops setting their foot on Japanese soil in Chiba, which marked the beginning of post-war Japan. In those years Yahagi has been introduced to photography by a friend of his father. For the first time he was exposed to works of advanced photography at the Tokyo Photographic Research Society’s annual exhibition (Kenten).
In 1949 he bought his first camera.
Post-war Japan was a rapidly changing environment and in the beginning Yahagi’s attempts were mainly documentary. But by the mid-1950s he developed an interest in the aesthetics of every day life and the people of his neighborhood. This became a life long passion to which he added the nudes in the mid-1960s.
He was member of different photographic clubs and associations, including the All-Japan Association of Photographic Societies (through his membership in Shiguru-kai), Japan Federation of Reportorial Photographers, and the Tokyo Photographic Research Society.
His work regularly appeared in Japanese photography magazines, including Asahi Camera, Camera Mainichi, and Sankei Camera, from the 1950 to the 1970s and has been exhibited in a wide range of venues, including the Kenten, the Japan Photography Grand Salon, and the International Photography Salon, gaining widespread recognition among art critics, dealers, and collectors throughout Japan.
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