Kazuo Kitai, in praise of the everyday

Exhibition from April 30 to July 25, 2026 at the Maison de la Culture du Japon in Paris, 101 bis, quai Jacques Chirac, 75015 Paris

Photographer Kazuo Kitai is one of the great masters of Japanese photography, yet still relatively unknown in Europe. Since the 1960s, he has documented Japanese society "from the inside": student movements, peasant struggles, villages on the brink of disappearing, burgeoning suburbs, everyday moments… This retrospective allows us to grasp the evolution of a profoundly humanist perspective, attentive to the transformations of Japan and the memories of its inhabitants. Through nearly 130 prints, it offers a comprehensive overview of his work, from the activist series of the 1960s and 1970s to his most recent projects created at home.

The exhibition is structured around four sections: the first To revolt / Sanrizuka, Resistance, Barricades, looks back at Kitai's early work, particularly through his series on student struggles. Then with Life in the countryside / Vaguely familiar landscapes, towards the villagesThe visitor is immersed in the melancholy of the Japanese countryside in the 1970s. The third section, entitled Living in an urban environment / Funabashi Story, Shinsekai Stories It offers a glimpse into the daily lives of the middle class in the suburban housing projects of Tokyo in the 1980s, as well as the working-class neighborhood of Shinsekai in Osaka. The exhibition concludes with a section dedicated to a more intimate work by the photographer (Walks with my Leica) and on one of his latest series, IROHA, which testifies to its undiminished ability to renew itself at 80 years old.

Curator : Satomi Fujimura (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture, Arts Council Tokyo)