Asakusa Park, Tokyo 

Kimura Ihee recalls in a magazine article that this photo was taken roughly one year after the end of the Second World War. At the time, many people would gather in the park behind the main hall of Senso-ji Temple, often just to spend the time as they pleased. An air of despair still hung over the people, and Kimura says these listless facial expressions and forlorn figures were typical of the era. On the other hand, his fellow photographer Domon Ken, with whom he is in dialogue in the same magazine article, focuses on the composition. According to him, the shot is centered on the vertical line of the bronze statue in the center. The viewer’s eye moves from the man on the far right to the woman below the statue, and then it opens up on the upper left to the sky. This sky reminded him of a burnt out field, and he comments, “I can really sense that atmosphere of nonchalance that was in Tokyo at the time.”
(OSAWA Sayoko)