Market, Naha
那覇の市場
- Birth Year
- 1901
- Death Year
- 1974
- Date
- 1935 (reprinted in ca. 1984)
- Technique, Material, Format
- gelatin silver print
- Dimension
- 18.9 x 28.8 cm
- Category
- Photograph or Moving Image by JapanesePhotographer/Artist
- Inventory Number
- 84-PHJ-087
Kimura Ihee went to Okinawa in 1935 after seeing Ryukyu-style dance for the first time. He wrote that in Okinawa he “was so taken by the romantic dreams of the dancing that he couldn’t think of anything else.” Among the many photographs he took during the visit, this was one of his favorites. Kimura commented that “there are stalls lining both sides of the road” and that when he made the photograph “it felt like filming a tracking shot for a movie.” Perhaps he wanted to capture the vibrancy and excitement of the Okinawan market in the style of a road movie? Kimura was in love with the beauty of Ryukyu dance, but he was also overwhelmed by the sight of the women who worked with heavy baskets on their heads without even bending their backs.
(OSAWA Sayoko)