At the library

One important aspect of our research in Tokyo is to visit libraries for the books and catalogues that are sometimes hard to find outside of Japan. Many of the best libraries belongs to Museums, as for example does the library at The Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. It's a small but informative place with interesting and always up-to-date titles on art and photography. They also hold a big archive for older exhibition catalogues.


The TMMP Chief Curator Michiko Kasahara has had her post since 2006, coming directly from the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (MOT) where she among other shows organized the exhibition "Life Actually: The works of Contemporary Japanese Women" (2005). Before becoming the Chief Curator at the TMMP and working for the MOT, she was also a curator at the TMMP between 1989-2002.


Often focusing on contemporary Japanese photography, Kasahara has curated shows at the TMMP as "On Your Body" (2008), "On Landscape" (2002), and "Kiss in the Dark" (2001).


Among Kasaharas earlier shows that are of special interest to SJCAGF are: "Love's Body: Rethinking the Naked and the Nude in Photography" (1998), "Gender Beyond Memory: The Works of Contemporary Women Artists" (1996), both at TMMP.


Extra: During Kasaharas tenure at MOT, she was appointed as the commissioner for Japan at the fifty-first Venice Biennale (2005) to curate Ishiuchi Miyako — "Mother's 2000–2005: Traces of the Future", find the catalogue here.