Introduction:
Ryosuke Toyama is a photographer who comes from a long line of artisans and craftsmen. Recently, he’s been focused on a project he calls “Reviving Vistas”, in which he shapes forested areas by cutting down trees and branches to revive the area, capturing the entire process on camera. Much of his work revolves around featuring other artisans on his film, using a technique that predates industrialization to portray the artists in the way they envision themselves, both now and in the future. Toyama prefers to be something of a mystery, although he embraces his position as “man behind the camera” by cultivating an active Instagram presence, sharing his life, work, and goals with the world.
Questions:
- How does modernity and tradition play a role in how you view your craft?
- Why did you want to introduce yourself to us without any prior research?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reflections:
During our time with Toyama-sensei, we learned more about both of his projects, Reviving Vistas and his artisan-capture project. Of the two, he is currently more actively involved with Revolving Vistas, where he uses the artificial forests of Keihoku to serve as the grounds for where he cuts down branches and trees in hopes of restoring the area to its former natural balance. When asked how he selected this as a project, he commented that he thought each photographer should strive to create the world they wished to photograph, and he wished to photograph a natural and harmonious rice landscape. Indeed, his parents’ practice as artisans seems to have influenced his current choice of projects, as he also noted the importance of hands-on labor and craft to his work: instead of simply clicking a shutter, he wants to shape the world around him as he creates.
Toyama-sensei’s philosophy as a photographer and artist is that distinguishes a photographer from some merely taking photos is the effort to “make a view.” This is an interesting, active stance on the artistic process that contrasts with the thoughts of some of the other artisans we’ve talked to, who instead elevate the importance of nature and suggest that nothing man can make could ever match the beauty of the natural. Toyama-sensei not only encourages artists to shape the natural view, but considers the man-made rice paddies an aspect of his ideal view. There were mixed feelings in the group about that. Some felt that human interferene should be minimized, while others feared that people trying to enforce the world to their vision would do more harm than good. In Toyama-sensei’s vision, however, cutting down the trees is not destruction, but creation. His hands were not intruders to the ecosystem, but a part of it. His is a vision that reflects our theme of inochi as ecosystem: valuing the life in humans, plants, and animals, and including the artistic passions and desires of people as part of that natural flow of inochi. In other words, being part of an ecosystem means taking an active role within it, rather than suppressing our vision for the sake of keeping things the same–after all, as Kawamura-sensei said, to express our emotions is what makes us human.
Toyama-sensei’s philosophy is also one that is deeply grounded in the history of Keihoku. With over 60% of the forest planted by human efforts after World War II, the lines between nature and man grow blurry. The remnants of the rice paddies and gravestones from the 6th Century are older than many of the trees. In that case, what is the natural part of the ecosystem, and what is the intruder? Toyama-sensei finds his ideal natural balance in living off the land. His work encourages other artists to seek their own answers.