The passion between ogres and buddhas: the search for niponicity in the photographic collection “Koji Junrei” (1939-1975), by Domon Ken

Abstract

Domon Ken devoted almost three decades of his life to the production of the imagetic collection “Koji junrei”, published between 1963 and 1975, although the work began in 1939. In the work, the Japanese photographer exhaustively sought to record the Buddhist material culture (involving mostly temple architecture and statuary), independently of school, in different cities of Japan. This paper intends to analyze texts and images that compound the collection, conceived ere as sources, focusing on the reasons that led Domon to perform this work. From the theoretical and methodological perspective, photography is understood as representation articulated through elements of photographic language. As results, it is suggested that the photographer constructed a representation of Buddhist entities in a sensualized way, conceiving Buddhism as the essence of niponicity in the postwar conjuncture.