Through Japanese Eyes: Ichiro Kagiyama and Australian-Japanese Relations in the 1920s and 1930s

摘要

The activities of a little known Japanese photographer working in Sydney, Australia during the early to mid twentieth century sheds new light on the photographic connections between Australia and Japan. The life and work of Ichiro Kagiyama are important catalysts for rethinking dualistic relationships between the 'West' and the 'East', and for developing an approach that allows for more nuance and complexity. Working directly with Australian photographers and tastemakers at a time when the so-called White Australia policy defined Australia as a racially exclusive country, Kagiyama chaEenges expectations about the historical relationships between Australia and Japan. Kagiyama's work also illustrates the interrelationships between diverse forms of photography practice, from art and commercial photography to espionage, as well as close connections between the worlds of art, design, international trade and photography in 1920s and 1930s Sydney. As Kagiyama's photographs resist essentialist readings yet were framed when published by stereotypes of Japanese culture as traditional, feminine and decorative, they help to tease out a certain tension within Australian-Japanese relations in the lead up to the Second World War.