‘An intense experience’: magical realism in Fukushima – in pictures
Japanese photographer Toshiya Watanabe plumbed the depths of his consciousness to produce these images of dead crows, cherry blossom trees and blooming cosmos
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Lycoris radiata / Red spider lily, Mitaka, Tokyo, 2023
Toshiya Watanabe, like the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, depicts subjects in his photographs in a way that bridges the magical and real worlds. His retrospective exhibition Beyond What You See is an extension of Somewhere Not Here, a series Watanabe says was triggered by ‘the intense experience of my birthplace being rendered uninhabitable by the 2011 nuclear accident in Fukushima’. All photographs by Toshiya Watanabe. Beyond What You See is at IBASHO gallery, Antwerp, until 3 November 2024. An accompanying book is available via IBASHO and The(M) éditions (Paris) -
Winter enclosure, Mitaka, Tokyo, 2021
Watanabe: ‘A cover made of straw to protect plants from snow and winter cold. They look like a parent and child cuddling each other’ -
Pine tree, Hama-rikyu, Tokyo, 2015
‘A pine tree in the Hama-rikyu gardens in the middle of the Tokyo metropolis. The pine tree standing on a small hill looks like a bonsai tree’ -
Fresh greenery, Mitaka, Tokyo, 2019
‘In April, young leaves sprout all at once on dead trees as a sign of spring. Its young leaves look like butterflies and fairies’ -
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Ripple, Mitaka, Tokyo, 2022
‘The ripples of the pond and the world reflected in it are profound. It shows me many different worlds’ -
Garden tree, Mitaka, Tokyo, 2023
‘Garden tree on a neighbourhood walkway. As I look at it, it begins to resemble something else. I am attracted to such subjects’ -
Crow, Mitaka, Tokyo, 2021
‘A crow that had fallen in front of my house’ -
Little girl, Kichijoji, Tokyo, 2019
‘By abstracting the subject, it is sometimes linked to the image in my memory. In the same way, I would like to create works that evoke images from the viewer’s memory’ -
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Cosmos, Namie, Fukushima, 2023
‘Many people were evacuated from my birthplace, Namie town, Fukushima, due to the nuclear accident on 11 March 2011. Here I photographed cosmos blooming in an empty place (located about 10km from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant) -
Cherry blossoms and child, Shinjuku, Gyoen, Tokyo, 2015
‘My parents used to take me to see the cherry blossoms when I was little. I can’t help but see myself in this child’ -
Lotus, Chofu, Tokyo, 2019
Toshiya Watanabe explores the depths of consciousness to create his magical realist images -
Heron, Mitaka, Tokyo, 2021
In Watanabe’s photographs of real landscapes – the sea, the city, vegetation – reality disappears. His work stimulates the viewer to pause, reflect and engage with the world around us -
