Kikuji Kawada’s ghostly photos of post-war Japan

In 1958, seven years after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by America, 25-year-old photographic assistant Kikuji Kawada was invited to accompany the established photographer Ken Domon on a magazine assignment to document the remains of the devastation at the bomb site. The images Kawada produced there, later published as part of his series The Map (1965), were to become a major landmark in the history of documentary photography. These astonishing and momentously important images are now on display alongside other work by Kawada in Endless Map – Invisible, an exhibition co-produced by KYOTOGRAPHIE × SIGMA as part of this year’s Rencontres d’Arles photography festival and Arles Associé. 

Kawada’s dark, more abstract pictures are impressionistic and richly, hauntingly symbolic, recording the textures and spoiled remains of this total devastation. His photographs of this site of trauma, currently on display in the exhibition, are a record of absence and its desolate contours. One photograph depicts the marks left by the black rain, impregnated with ash and radiation fallout, which fell on the city in the wake of the bomb. Stains on the walls of the Genbaku Dome (the only building left standing near the site) are all that remained of the obliterated human life that once occupied this space. Captured by Kawada and reproduced in the dark room and the pages of The Map, these marks become a kind of facsimile of existence – a memory of a memory of a memory, ad infinitum. 

With the detonation of the A-bomb at its epicentre, The Map tells an even bigger story about post-WW2 Japan. Photographs taken at a later date in Tokyo depict the artefacts of American occupation – fossilised Coca-Cola bottles and a disfigured packet of Lucky Strikes. Each image becomes part of a wider constellation of meaning as Kawada maps an emotional and historic cartography. 

The show also includes works from The Last Cosmology (published in 1995, but shot mainly in the 1980s and 90s). This series is also connected with proximity and distance, between ‘signs of the past and the mysteries of the cosmos’. His chiaroscuro visions are mesmerising: a radiant moon semi-obscured by clouds; a luminous eclipse in the dense black sky. Elsewhere in the exhibition, Los Caprichos (1972- present), taking inspiration from the Goya series of the same name, is a wry exploration of Japan’s period of economic growth. And three antechamber-like spaces off the main gallery offer the opportunity to watch a slideshow of Vortex (2022). This series once again feels like a form of constellation. Images which at first glance seem disparate and disconnected begin to form themselves into an almost discernible shape or rhythm. 

Below, we talk to the revered photographer about his enigmatic photography, what compels him to reach for his camera, and his advice for young artists.

Many photographers I speak to are drawn to photography for its ability to, in a sense, preserve or immortalise moments in time. How do you relate to this idea? And to what extent is this part of the appeal of the medium for you?

Kikuji Kawada: I don’t know in what context other photographers talk about “preserving’ or ‘immortalising’, but to me, it sounds like the kind of exclamation that comes from finding satisfaction with one's own work. Recording is probably a personal, objective act, and as for the idea of 'immortality', I don’t really feel that from images. What I seek from photography is unexpected realities and unknown knowledge.

What would you say is the guiding principle of your work?

Kikuji Kawada: Perhaps I am searching for unknown images that emerge from the automatic capture made possible by light and speed – snapshots of images created by light that stimulate the imagination, the reality captured through the combination of lens and shutter, and descriptions made by light and speed. Even from the physical, literal reality, I try to discover new knowledge.

What moments, scenes or feelings compel you to reach for your camera? What obsesses or fascinates you as an artist?

Kikuji Kawada: When something that stirs my emotions suddenly passes before my eyes, or when an unknown shadow or light flickers in front of me amid the everyday phenomena – those are the moments. I try to keep my camera close as much as possible, even when I’m in the car or watching television. The violent phenomena of the world, signs of impending natural disasters, the view from many eyes, from a compound gaze – these are what fascinate and compel me.

The violent phenomena of the world, signs of impending natural disasters, the view from many eyes, from a compound gaze – these are what fascinate and compel me – Kikuji Kawada

Please could you tell us about how you move between realism and abstraction? How do you come to decide which approach your subject requires? And what appeals to you about both modes of expression?

Kikuji Kawada: In order to obtain the multifaceted images photography makes possible, I believe one must go through a necessary process of trial and experimentation. The abstraction that emerges within photography can be found both within a direct, straightforward style and within more complex, layered images.

I’ve heard it said that there’s an almost archaeological aspect to your practice. In what ways, if any, does this idea resonate with you?

Kikuji Kawada: Whether it’s archaeological or not, I’ve never really felt that way myself. However, that perspective is essential when dealing with broader, grand themes… It’s indispensable. At the same time, it’s also possible to find such a perspective within everyday sequences.

Your work makes me think a great deal about presence/absence and proximity/distance. For example, the stains on the wall beneath the A-Bomb Dome give me this sensation that you are tracing the contours of absence, somehow; that once there was a person here, and this is what their annihilation looks like. Does this resonate with you at all? And if so, what is your relationship with these states of being?

Kikuji Kawada: To trace the contours of absence – in many cases, that is precisely what photography does. From that absence, the hidden knowledge that photography possesses lies in the search for the real or illusory reality, or sometimes in the pursuit of illusion. Within proximity and distance, I see both a nostalgia for what has been documented and an exploration of new knowledge of an invisible future. I hope to imagine this through titles I have used, such as Endless Map, Invisible, The Perfect Past, and Shadows."

How do you feel your work speaks to ideas of haunting and temporality? I feel that there is a very visceral sense of the present, past – and even of the future – existing in the same shared space within many of your images...

Kikuji Kawada: I’m honoured that you sensed a scene in which the past, present, and future seem to coexist. I believe everyone has experienced moments when they encounter something that feels like synchronicity – something that carries a causal connection to themselves – or when they are captivated by events that unexpectedly shine with significance. It feels as though an unknown drama is beginning to unfold. I wanted these three series to be enigmatic polyhedra, containing a chronicle that rises up from the flat surface of a map.

If you could share any advice to aspiring artists and photographers, what would you pass on?

Kikuji Kawada: These are words that the writer Kenzaburo Oe once gave me, along with a bookmark, from his book Writing Against Violence with some bookmarked words. I would like to share these words with you as well: ‘As long as I breathe, I will not give up’ – Spero Dum Spiro.

Kikuji Kawada’s Endless Map – Invisible is co-produced by KYOTOGRAPHIE × SIGMA as part of this year’s Rencontres d’Arles photography festival and Arles Associé, and is on display at Vague gallery until 5 October, 2025.