honorable mention
Yusuke Nishimura japan
title
Acts Live On
Acts Live on is a portrait series of Japanese folk performing arts distributed across Japan. The traditional acts are inherited by ancestors, reaching back more than a few hundreds years. These traditions have changed very little since the beginning. The performance that shows the way of people's life are the reflection of their geography, occupation, diet, and human nature. As for mentioning specially, in addition to Shishimai (tiger dance), Kagura (sacred music and dancing performed at shrines), and the Japanese drum which can be called the standard as an entertainment of Japan, festivals and entertainments with the conduct to be concerned with farming are distributed over the country.
When people greet the New Year It is simulated and plays a process of the rice growing of one year, and an entertainment of the pre-celebration to pray for a good harvest is performed flourishingly and we are realized how the wish to the good harvest of ancient people was acute. These were loved by local people and become a pillar of the local community as inherent culture while it was afraid.
It is unexpectedly not known to a Japanese that most of entertainments to come to such an area are roots to ones registered with UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage as traditional performing arts such as Noh (Japanese classical drama), Kabuki (Japanese classical drama).
I photograph these on the black background to explore the fascination of hidden Japanese anthropology and to tell folk performers' history.
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entry description
Finding the stories behind the subjects is an essential elements of my work. No matter where I shoot, even its in the photo studios, the subjects tell their stories through my lens.Acts Live on is a portrait series of Japanese folk performing arts distributed across Japan. The traditional acts are inherited by ancestors, reaching back more than a few hundreds years. These traditions have changed very little since the beginning. The performance that shows the way of people's life are the reflection of their geography, occupation, diet, and human nature. As for mentioning specially, in addition to Shishimai (tiger dance), Kagura (sacred music and dancing performed at shrines), and the Japanese drum which can be called the standard as an entertainment of Japan, festivals and entertainments with the conduct to be concerned with farming are distributed over the country.
When people greet the New Year It is simulated and plays a process of the rice growing of one year, and an entertainment of the pre-celebration to pray for a good harvest is performed flourishingly and we are realized how the wish to the good harvest of ancient people was acute. These were loved by local people and become a pillar of the local community as inherent culture while it was afraid.
It is unexpectedly not known to a Japanese that most of entertainments to come to such an area are roots to ones registered with UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage as traditional performing arts such as Noh (Japanese classical drama), Kabuki (Japanese classical drama).
I photograph these on the black background to explore the fascination of hidden Japanese anthropology and to tell folk performers' history.
about the photographer
In 2002, Yusuke moved to California, United States of America to pursue his career in movie making. After he attended his first college, California State University of Long Beach, he worked on a movie set for 3 years. While he was learning about movie production, he also discovered his passion for photography. After a few years, he decided to go to Art Center College of Design Pasadena to learn more about commercial photography. When he graduated from the college in the summer of 2007, he realized he had a great passion for shooting portraitures. Right after graduation, he moved to New York City and worked there as a photographer until Feb 2009. He is currently based in Japan, Tokyo and shoots editorials and advertisements. He has also directed a short movie, music videos and TV commercialsback to gallery