[Exhibition Review] Hiromi Tsuchida: "Zokushin (Profane Gods)" (March 27–June 30, 2025 | FUJIFILM SQUARE Photo History Museum)

The collection of photographs that Hiromi Tsuchida took between 1968 and 1975, and compiled into the photo book "Zokushin" (Otto's Books) in 1976, is not only one of his early masterpieces but also a work that carved out a new territory in Japanese documentary photography. During this period, Japan was in the midst of rapid economic growth, and traditional rural communities were disintegrating as the urbanization and homogenization of society and culture progressed rapidly. Tsuchida turned his camera toward festivals and annual events across the country, stepping into a strange space-time where the sacred and the profane, the extraordinary and the ordinary, seemed to be nested within one another. The figures of the "Zokushin"—the indigenous, vulgar gods—that appear in this photo series are arguably the archetypes of the Japanese way of being that has continued unbroken ever since. Looking at this energetic exhibition of prints from the 1980s, it is clear that the fundamental stance of Tsuchida as a photographer—who, now in his late 80s, remains ambitiously committed to taking on new projects—was established through this work.

Reviewer: Kotaro Iizawa

Hiromi Tsuchida Photo Exhibition "Zokushin"
Dates: Thursday, March 27 – Monday, June 30, 2025
Venue: FUJIFILM SQUARE Photo History Museum
Related Link: https://fujifilmsquare.jp/exhibition/250327_05.html

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