Setting — Sun Writings By Japanese Photographers

The primary source for writings by Japanese photographers on this subject is the anthology Setting Sun: Writings by Japanese Photographers (Aperture, 2005) . Edited by Ivan Vartanian, Akihiro Hatanaka, and Yutaka Kambayashi, it is the first English collection of its kind, featuring 29 essays by 19 influential photographers spanning from the 1950s to the early 2000s . Overview of the Anthology

Core Theme: The book explores the essential connection between word and image in Japanese culture, particularly the role of nostalgia in a society grappling with its postwar identity.

The anthology Setting Sun: Writings by Japanese Photographers is a seminal collection that provides English-speaking readers with their first deep dive into the theoretical and personal musings of Japan's most influential image-makers. Published by the Aperture Foundation, the book captures the shift in Japanese photography from the 1950s post-war era to the contemporary scene. setting sun writings by japanese photographers

Availability: As a collector's item, it has become somewhat "elusive," often commanding premium prices on the used market. Writings by Japanese Photographers - Japan Camera Hunter

It provides essential written context—ranging from philosophical treaties to intimate diary entries—that explains these photographers view their work and the world. Historical Scope: The primary source for writings by Japanese photographers

His writings: Moriyama’s accompanying texts talk about "the exhaustion of seeing." For him, the setting sun signals the end of the hunter’s day (he famously described walking the streets like a stray dog). He writes about the setting sun as a cut-off point—the moment when the city’s neon takes over, and reality becomes even more hallucinatory. His words are not poetic elegies; they are urban manifestos of fatigue.

The "Burning Soul" of Eikoh Hosoe

No discussion of Japanese solar iconography is complete without Eikoh Hosoe (b. 1933). In his most famous collaboration with writer Yukio Mishima, Ordeal by Roses (1963), the setting sun is not a landscape—it is a body. Hosoe photographed Mishima (a man obsessed with the dying of the aristocratic sun) in chiaroscuro light. The shadows stretch like solar flares across the novelist’s torso. Writings by Japanese Photographers - Japan Camera Hunter

The anthology features 30 pieces by 19 photographers, spanning from the 1950s to the early 2000s. Unlike Western traditions where critics often dominate the discourse, Japanese photographers have a robust history of writing their own manifestos, diaries, and technical reflections. The book is organized into seven thematic sections: