Domon Ken (1909–1990) was one of the most influential photographers of twentieth-century Japan. Born in Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture, Domon first trained as a painter before turning to photography in the early 1930s. In 1933 he apprenticed at the Kotaro Miyauchi Photo Studio in Tokyo, and by 1935 he had joined Nippon Kōbō, a design and photography collective led by Natori Yōnosuke. Nippon Kōbō produced the bilingual magazine NIPPON, which projected images of Japan to international audiences. Domon’s early assignments taught him how to merge documentary photography with striking modernist design — skills that would soon be mobilized for national display.

By 1939 Domon was working with the Kokusai Bunka Shinkōkai (International Cultural Promotion Society, or KBS), the government-sponsored agency responsible for promoting Japanese culture abroad. Through this network, he contributed photographs to the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair. In the Fair’s “Covered Space” exhibition, Japan presented a monumental photo mural titled Japanese Industry (日本産業). Composed of five thematic panels—shipbuilding, handicrafts, textiles, machinery, and aviation—the mural combined Domon’s photographs with those of other young photojournalists. Designers overlaid the images with materials such as metal, rope, cloth, and plywood, creating a bold relief effect. The result was a striking visual narrative of Japan’s vitality, order, and modern progress.

This mural was conceptually linked to another project Domon contributed to at the same time: the photo book Nippon: Japan the Nation in Panorama (1938). Designed by Kumada Gorō in a dramatic fold-out accordion format, the book paired Domon’s images with photographs by Kimura Ihei and others. Like the mural, the book blended scenes of industry, landscapes, and cultural heritage into a unified portrait of a nation that was both ancient and modern. Together, these two works reveal how photography was harnessed in the late 1930s to craft a carefully controlled image of Japan for foreign audiences.

After the Second World War, Domon redirected his practice toward what became known as photographic realism. Rejecting staged or manipulated imagery, he insisted on the immediacy of the “snapshot.” His camera recorded the realities of Hiroshima survivors, children in coal-mining communities, and everyday life in postwar cities. These works formed an unflinching documentary record of Japan’s recovery and struggles in the decades after the war.

At the same time, Domon pursued a lifelong project photographing Buddhist sculpture and temple architecture. Beginning with visits to Murō-ji in 1939, he eventually produced the monumental series Koji Junrei (Pilgrimage to Ancient Temples), published between 1963 and 1975. These images combined devotion with careful documentation, securing his reputation as both a photographer and a preserver of cultural heritage.

Domon’s influence extended internationally. His work was exhibited in New York at the Museum of Modern Art in Photographs from the Museum Collection (1958–59) and New Japanese Photography (1974). In 1983, the Ken Domon Museum of Photography opened in his hometown of Sakata — the first museum in Japan dedicated to a single photographer.

From the monumental displays of the New York World’s Fair to the intimate records of postwar life and ancient temples, Domon Ken’s career demonstrates the power of photography to shape how Japan was seen, both abroad and at home.

References 

• Takenaka, Akiko. The Construction of a War-Time National Identity: The Japanese Pavilion at New York World’s Fair 1939/40. Master’s thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1997.

• Yamamoto, Sae. “The Influence of Photo-Reportage on Photo-mural ‘Nippon Sangyo’ at the New York World’s Fair, 1940.” Bulletin of Japanese Society for the Science of Design 56, no. 2 (2009): 63–72. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jssdj/56/2/56_KJ00005757828/_pdf.

• Museum of Modern Art. Photographs from the Museum Collection. Exhibition, New York, November 26, 1958–January 18, 1959. https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2442.

• Museum of Modern Art. New Japanese Photography. Exhibition, New York, March 27–May 19, 1974. https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/2525.