Kijuro YAHAGI (f. 1952) er en fotograf og grafiker fra Yamagata-provinsen nord i Japan.

Gjennom arbeidet stilte Yahagi spørsmålet: Hva er natur? Finnes det kun en type tolkning av begrepet natur? Reisen, - det å være i bevegelse og oppdage at det finnes mange forskjellige typer natur, ble mer avgjørende enn selve dokumentasjonen. Kunstneren ønsket ikke bare å gjengi det tradisjonelle Japan, men også å gi et ansikt til det moderne Japan.

Et utdrag fra kunstnerens tekst: A Look at”Nature”, Kijuro Yahagi :

"When I began taking these photographs I wondered if, by taking a candid look at nature in Japan, I couldn’t also bring the modern face of Japan to life through them. On my journey, before I knew it, I had travelled 20,000 kilometres through Japan. The photographs I took on that journey were eventually published in a collection entitled Hidden Japan---Shizen ni Hisomu Nihon.

A question gradually formed within me as I actually observed nature with my own eyes and photographed it: When we speak of “nature”, what do we think the word encompasses?
I eventually realized that the scenes which we most readily picture in our minds are merely man made scenes. With that realization, I was struck by the almost Zen-like question of whether real nature actually exists. After pondering this question for a while, I came up with the idea of putting the word “nature” in quotes as a way of freeing myself from the concept of real nature. I felt as if I had come a little closer to finding an answer to my question.
As I encountered the various elements of a symbolic Japanese “nature” and found that it is always in motion, I began to believe that I could bring to the surface a “nature” that I was unable to perceive before, or perhaps a “nature” that did not show itself before.
As for my picture-taking journey across Japan, first I must mention that midway through it a major chance in my attitude occurred. During the early stages of my journey, I would select a location to shoot and then head there, but I gradually began to question that practice. I could not help suspecting that a trip with no destination would yield more discoveries. I therefore abandoned my practice of using the expressways to get to my destination in the shortest possible time. I began to use national highways, then prefectural and city roads, and finally I consciously wandered onto forest paths and animal trails.

Through my journey, which was based on by the idea of “nature” in quotes, a number of things became apparent. I came to realize that the scenes of “nature” one grows up with are remembered even now by the people who live among them, or even by people who have moved away, and that there are different typological scenes of “nature” depending on each individual. Feelings of nostalgia well up suddenly when one comes across typological scene of “nature”. It could be fields surrounded by mountains, it could be fishermen’s houses surrounding a small harbor, it could be houses on the side of a mountain that has been cleared or it could be a large city full of hurrying pedestrians and traffic jams.

I felt as if the various typological scenes of Japanese “nature” always in motion were closing in on me, though each and every one of them had the same depth of meaning. There is only one reason for this. I became convinced that even if, after many years, a myriad scenes blend intricately together in one memory, for some reason we subconsciously accept the “nature” that we see at any given time. I thought this is not a foreign country; this is certainly the true Japan, continually changing at a dizzying pace."

Utstillingen har kommet i stand gjennom et samarbeid mellom den Japanske Ambassade og Oslo Museum.

Tommy Olssons omtale av et forsøk på anmeldelse av utstillingen.

Sist oppdatert 22.03.2010