(b Hokkaido, 25 Feb 1934). Japanese photographer. He graduated in 1956 in photography at Nihon University in Tokyo and worked as a commercial photographer. His first exhibition, the one-man show Buta wo kurose (‘Kill the pigs’; Tokyo, Ginza A.G., 1961), was a surrealistic fantasy set in a slaughterhouse. The photographs in this exhibition were later gathered in the collection Yugi (‘Play’; Tokyo, 1971). He established his individual style in the series Yoko (Tokyo, 1978), which records with bitter humour his daily life with Yoko, his wife from 1964 to 1976. After his divorce from her, his work became more abstract, and flocks of ravens, suggestive of human mortality, were chosen as graphic symbols. In 1977 the series Karasu (‘Ravens’; Tokyo, 1986) received the Ina Nobuo Prize. His viewpoint became increasingly introspective, characterized by the expression of a concern with the more profound aspects of life and death. Shortly after publishing his book Chichi no kioku (‘Memories of father’; Tokyo, 1991) he was seriously injured in an accident.