720 N. Highland Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90038 | T: 323 450 9409 | www.nonaka-hill.com

Shomei Tomatsu

Biography

Shomei Tomatsu was born in Nagoya in 1930, and passed away in 2012. He began photographing while at Aichi University, and before long he would become recognized as a pivotal
figure in the post-war photography world of Japan. Beginning with a series that observes thepeople and scenery around American Military bases (“Occupation”) and moving towards a
recollection of the atomic bomb (11:02 Nagasaki, 1966), Tomatsu looked at the situation of hisday with a sharp eye, while also opening up new possibilities for photographic expression. In
1969, after visiting Okinawa for the first time, he developed a deeper interest not just towards
bases, but also towards natural beauty. This interest guided the production of his 1975 book
The Pencil of the Sun, which won the Mainichi Art Award and The Minister of Education,
Science and Culture’s Art Encouragement Prize. In 1999, he moved to Nagasaki, also setting
up a residence in Okinawa and producing work at a steady clip.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2018
2016
2015
2013

Plastics, Nonaka-Hill, Los Angeles, USAShomei Tomatsu: Nagasaki, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan
Chewing Gum and Chocolate, Misa Shin Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Afghanistan 1963, Misa Shin Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Shomei Tomatsu: Island Life, The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, USATomatsu Shomei and plants in Okinawa, Okinawa Prefectural Art Museum, Okinawa, Japan
Toki-wo-kezuru, Mitsubishi-Jisho Artium, Fukuoka, JapanTomatsu Shomei Photographs, Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, Nagasaki, JapanNagasaki 11:02, Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, Nagasaki, Japan2012
2011Shomei Tomatsu: The Pencil of the Sun, Canon Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Tomatsu Shomei Photographs, Tonami Art Museum, Toyama, Japan
Shinjuku Turmoil, Misa Shin Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Tomatsu Shomei. Okinawa Photographs - Love Letter to the Sun, Okinawa PerfectualMuseum & Art Museum, Naha, Japan

2010
2009
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2000
1999
1998

Tomatsu Shomei: Photographs, Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya, Japan
Nagasaki 11:02, Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, Nagasaki, Japan

Tomatsu Shomei: Tokyo Mandala, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan

Aichi Mandala: Tomatsu Shomei’s Landscape, Aichi Prefectural 2 Museum of Art, Aichi, JapanShomei Tomatsu: Skin of the Nation, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California, USA

Shomei Tomatsu: Skin of the Nation, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington,D.C.,USA

Shomei Tomatsu: Skin of the Nation, Japan Society, New York, USA

Shomei Tomatsu: Three Decades in Color, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan
Okinawa Mandala, Urasoe Art Museum, Okinawa, Japan

Nagasaki Mandala, Nagasaki Prefectural Museum, Nagasaki, Japan

Traces: Fifty Years of Tomatsu’s Work, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan
Shomei Tomatsu: Cherry Blossoms, Niitsu City Art Museum, Niigata, Japan
Character P: The Final Abode, epSITE Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

720 N. Highland Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90038 | T: 323 450 9409 | www.nonaka-hill.com

Shomei Tomatsu

Selected Solo Exhibitions

1997
1996

Shomei Tomatsu, Mutsuzawa Town Hall, Chiba, Japan

Nagasaki 11:02, Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, Nagasaki, Japan
Interface, Ginza Nikon Salon, Tokyo; Osaka, Japan

Nikon Salon Interface: Shomei Tomatsu, National Film Center, National Museum ofModern Art, Tokyo, Japan
1995

Shomei Tomatsu: The Light and Shadow of Postwar Japan, Naha Citizens Gallery andTaira Central Community Hall, Okinawa, JapanThe Nagasaki Survivors, Trinity College, Vermont, USA1994
1993
1992

Kyoto/Cherry Blossoms-The Original Image of The Japanese Nation, Konica Plaza, Tokyo, Japan
Shomei Tomatsu: New World Map + Golden Mushroom, Inax Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Southern Island Journal- The Ryukyu Archipelago, Konica Plaza, Tokyo, Japan
Shomei Tomatsu Photographs, Gallery Emon, Nagoya, Japan

Photographs by Tomatsu: Sakura + Plastics, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
1991
1990
1989

Shomei Tomatsu: Weathering Time, Maikata Citizen Gallery , Osaka, Japan

Shomei Tomatsu, Perspektief Centrum Voor Fotografie, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Cherry, Cherry, Cherry, Umeda Loft, Osaka, Japan 3Yamagataya Cult ural Hall, Kagoshima, Japan

Plastics, Parco Galleries, Tokyo Sapporo, and Osaka, Japan

1988

The Colors Blossom, Scatter, and Fall, Polaroid Gallery, Tokyo; Picture Photo Space, Osaka, Japan

1986

Shomei Tomatsu: Nagasaki, Liberty Osaka, Osaka, Japan

1984

Shomei Tomatsu: Japanese Landscapes, Toyonaka Central Public Hall, Osaka, Japan

Shomei Tomatsu: Japan, 1952-1981, Fotogalarie im Forum Stadtpark, Graz, AT; Traklhaus,Salzburg; Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna, AT; Kornerpark Galarie, Berlin, DE;

Fotofourum, Bremen, DE; Stadtische Galarie, Erlangen, DE; Museet for Fotokunst,Odense, DK
1981

What Now!! Japan through the Eyes of Shomei Tomatsu, Yatsushiro Municipal Parking
Garage Hall, Kumamoto, and twenty –nine other Japanese venues

1978
1964
1962
1959

Selected Group Exhibitions

2017

The Pencil of the Sun, Nihon Seimei Hall, Nagoya, Japan
Kingdom of Mud, Fuji Photo Salon, Tokyo, Japan

11:02 Nagasaki, Fuji Photo Salon, Tokyo, Japan
People, Fuji Photo Salon, Tokyo, Japan

20 Year Anniversary TOP Collection: Tokyo Tokyo and TOKYO, Tokyo Photographic
Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan

2016

Provoke: Between Protest and Performance, Photography in Japan 1960- 1975,Albertina, Vienna, AT; Fotomuseum Winterthur, CH; Le Bal, Paris, FR; Art Institute ofChicago, Chicago, USA
2015

For a New World to Come: Experiments in Japanese Art and Photography,1968-1979, The Museum of Fine Arts, Texas, USA; Grey Art Gallery, New York
University, New York, USA; Japan Society Gallery, New York, USA

720 N. Highland Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90038 | T: 323 450 9409 | www.nonaka-hill.com

Shomei Tomatsu

Selected Group Exhibitions

2015

The 70th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki: War and Peace,

Hiroshima Prefectural Museum and Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, JapanCollection Exhibition 2015-16, National Museum of Modern Art Kyoto, Japan

Conflict, Time, Photography, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden, Germany;

Museum Folkwang, Essen, DE; Aichi Notes – Clay, Ceramics, Landscape and Memory, Aichi
Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Aichi, Japan2014

Conflict, Time, Photography, Tate Modern, London, England

The Provoke Era: Japanese Photography from the Collection of SFMOMA, Crocker Art
Museum, Sacramento, California, Japan

2013

1968 -Japanese Photography, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, JP

Memories of the Town: Yokosuka via Photography and Art, Yokosuka Museum of Art,Kanagawa, Japan

2012

Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

Everything Was Moving: Photography from the 60s and 70s, Barbican Art Gallery, London, England
2011

Busan Biennale 2012 – Garden of Leaning –, The Busan Biennale 2012, Busan, KR

Breaking News – Fukushima and the consequences –, KW Institute for Contemporary Art,Berlin, Germany

2008-09
2003

Ryukyu, Okinawa Two People Exhibition Higa Yasuo Ritual of Ryukyu: Tomatsu Shomei

Chewing Gum and Chocolate, Canon Gallery S, Tokyo; Urasoe Art Museum, Okinawa, Japan

Japan 1945-1975: A Photographic Renewal, Patrimonie Photographique, Paris, FR

The History of Japanese Photography, Museum Fine Arts, Houston, Cleveland Museum ofArt, Cleveland, USA

2000
1999

How You Look at it: Photographs of the Twentieth Century, Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany
Memories of Twentieth-Century Japan: Ten Photographers’ Visions, Tokyo Metropolitan
Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan

1995

After Hiroshima: The Message from Contemporary Art, Hiroshima City Museum of Contem-porary Art, Hiroshima, JapanThe History of Contemporary Photography: The Documenting and Creative Eye, Mitsukoshi,
Tokyo; Nabio Art Museum, Osaka, JapanThe Half-Life of Awareness: Photographs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Tokyo Metropolitan
Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan
1994

Scream Against the Sky: Japanese Art After 1945, Yokohama Museum of Art, Kanagawa, JP;
Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
Neo-DaDa Exhibition, Fukuoka City Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan

1993

Modern Japanese Art, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan

Photographs from the Real World, Lillehammer Bys Malerisamlung, NO; Bergen

Kunstforening Museum, NO; Copenhagen Photography Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark
1992

More Than One Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

720 N. Highland Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90038 | T: 323 450 9409 | www.nonaka-hill.com

Shomei Tomatsu

Selected Group Exhibitions

1991

The Toppan Collection, International Center of Photography, New York, USA

Innovation in Japanese Photography in the 1960s, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum ofPhotography, Tokyo, Japan
1990

The Past and Present of Photography, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; National

Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan
1989

Photographs of the 1940s and 1950s, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA

Eleven Photographers in Japan 1965-75: Has Japanese Photography Been Changed?,Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, Yamaguchi, Japan

Photography Until Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Cleveland Museum ofArt, Cleveland, USA

150 Years of Photography, Konica Plaza, Tokyo, Japan1986
1985

Japanese Photography, Museum Voor Fotographie, Chaleroi, Belgium

Avant-Garde Art, Japan: 1910-1970, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, FranceParis, New York, Tokyo, Tsukuba Photography Museum, Miyagi Prefectural ArtMuseum, Miyagi, JapanThe Incredible Image: Photographs of War, 1846 to the Present, Grey Art Gallery andStudy Center, New York University, New York, USA; Institute for the Arts, Rice Museum,Houston, Texas, USA; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., USA
1985

Black Sun: The Eyes of Four, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK; Serpentine Gallery,London, UK; Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA; University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa
City, USA; Japan House Gallery, New York, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art, 6 Los
Angeles, USA; Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland, USA
1982

Twentieth-Century Photography from the New York Museum of Modern Art, Seibu Art

Museum, Tokyo, Japan
1979
1976
1975
1974

Japan: A Self- Portrait, International Center of Photography, New York, USA
New Photography from Japan, Kulturhausder Stadt, Graz, AT

The History of Modern Japanese Photography, Seibu Art Museum, Tokyo, JapanNew Japanese Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Denver ArtMuseum, Colorado, USA; Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, Minneapolis, USA; Winnipeg Art Gallery, Manitoba, CA; Krannert
Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, Illinois, USA; San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA; Seattle Art Museum, Washington, USA;
Portland Art Museum, Oregon, USA
1963

Contemporary Photography Exhibition 1961-62, National Museum of Modern Art,Tokyo, Japan
1962

Non, Matsuya, Tokyo, Japan 1957,’58,’59 Eyes of Ten, Konishiroku Photo Gallery,Tokyo, Japan1956

Five Photojournalists, Matsushima Gallery Tokyo, Japan

720 N. Highland Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90038 | T: 323 450 9409 | www.nonaka-hill.com

Shomei TomatsuAwards

2005

The Photographic Society of Japan Distinguished Contributions Award

1995

The Medal with Purple Ribbon from the Japanese government

1976

The Minister of Education, Science and Culture’s Art Encouragement Prize

1976

The Mainichi Art Award1961

The Japan Photo Critics Association Artist Award

1958

The Japan Photo Critics Association Newcomer’s Award

Permanent Installations,

Art Institute of Chicago, USAMuseum andHarvard Art Museums, USA

Public collections

Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, Japan
National Gallery of Art, USA
Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum, Japan
Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, USA
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA
The Museum of Modern Art, USA
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, JapanTokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Japan

Selected Bibliography- The Pencil of the Sun: New Edition, Tokyo: Akaaka Art Publishing Inc., 2015
- Chewing Gum and Chocolate: Photographs and texts by Shomei Tomatsu. Leo Rubinfien and John Junkerman, New York: Aperture, 2014.
- Tokyo Mandala: The World of Shomei Tomatsu, Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum ofPhotography, 2007.
- Aichi Mandala: The Early works of Shomei Tomatsu. Aichi Prefectural Museum of Artand Chunichi Shinbun, 2006.
- Nagasaki mandara: Tomatsu Shomei no me 1961-. Nagasaki: Nagasaki Shinbunsha, 2005.
- Shomei Tomatsu: Skin of the Nation. Leo Rubinfen, Sandra S. Phillips, John W Dower,
Preface by Daido Moriyama. San Francisco Museum of Art / Yale University Press, 2004.
- Shomei Tomatsu (Phaidon Tomatsu 55s) Ian Jeffereys. London and New York: Phaidon
Press, 2011.
- Tomastu Shomei: Nagasaki Mandara, Nagasaki: Nagasaki Prefectrural Museum, 2000.
- Tomatsu Shomei 1951- 60, Tokyo: Sakuhinsha, 2000.
- Traces: 50 years of Tomatsu’s works, Tokyo: Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture,1999.
- Tomatsu Shomei. Nihon no Shashinka 30, Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1999.

720 N. Highland Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90038 | T: 323 450 9409 | www.nonaka-hill.com

Shomei Tomatsu

Selected Bibliography- Ueno Koshi, Shashinka: Tomatsu Shomei (Shomei Tomatsu, Photographer). Tokyo:Seidosha, 1999.
- Visions of Japan: Tomatsu Shomei, Kyoto: Korinsha, 1998.
- Toki no Shimajima (Island of Time). With text by Ryuta Imafuku. Tokyo: Iwatani Shiten, 1998.
- Shomei Tomatsui Interface, Tokyo: The National Museum of Modern Art, 1996.
- Nagasaki 11:02 1945 nen 8 gatsu 9 ka (Nagasaki, 11:02, August 9, 1945). Tokyo:Shinchosha, 1995.
- Sakura 66:photographed by Shomei Tomatsu. Osaka: Brain Center Inc., 1990.
- Sakura 120: photographed by Shomei Tomatsu. Osaka: Brain Center Inc., 1990.
- Hikaru kaze: Okinawa (The Shining Wind: Okinawa), Vol 8 of The Beauty of Japan:
Complete Collection of Contemporary Japanese Photography. Tokyo: Parco, 1987.
- Ruinous Gardens: photographed by Shomei Tomatsu, Tokyo: Parco Publishing, 1987.
- Showa Shiashin Zenshigoto 15: Tomatsu Shomei (Anthology of the Photography of theShowa Period, vol.15: Shomei Tomatsu). Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsh, 1984.
- Doro no okoku (Kingdom of Mud). Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1978.
- Akemodoro no hana: Okinawa nikki (Scarlet Dappled Flower: Okinawa Journal). Tokyo:Senseido, 1976.
- Taiyo no enpitsu (The pencil of the Sun: Okinawa and South- East Asia). Tokyo: Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1975.
- I am a King. Tokyo: Shashin Hyoronsha, 1972.
- Sengoha (Apre’s-Guerre). Tokyo: Chuo Koronsha, 1971.
- Oh! Shinjuku. Tokyo: Shaken, 1969. Okinawa, Okinawa, Okinawa. Tokyo: Shaken, 1969.
- Saramu areikomu (Salaam Aleikum). Tokyo: Shaken, 1968.
- Nippon (Japan). Tokyo: Shaken, 1967. “11 ji 02 fun” Nagasaki (11:02 Nagasaki). Tokyo:Shashin Dojinsha, 1966.
- Hiroshima-Nagasaki Document 1961, with Ken Domon et al. Tokyo: Japan Council
against A-and H-Bombs, 1961.
- Yakimono no Machi-Seto (Pottery Town –Seto), No. 165 of the Iwanami Photography
Library. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1955.
- Tomatsu, Shomei, et al. Suigai to Nihonjin (Floods and the Japanese), No.124 of theIwanami Photography Library. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1954.