Shoko Hashimoto “Kitakami River”

Dates: March 27 (Fri) — May 30 (Sat), 2026

Zen Foto Gallery is pleased to present “Kitakami River”, a solo exhibition by photographer Shoko Hashimoto, held from Friday, March 27 to Saturday, May 30, 2026. The exhibition celebrates the publication of his latest photobook of the same title, following Ishinomaki 1955.6–1969.5. Expanding beyond the familiar streets of his hometown Ishinomaki, Hashimoto turns his lens to the Kitakami River, starting from the river source including the sacred spring at Mido Kannon Temple in Iwate-machi. The exhibition brings together a carefully selected body of work in both color and black-and-white, including photographs not featured in the photobook.

Also presented are images documenting Chagu Chagu Umakko, a vibrant festival deeply rooted in the culture of the Kitakami River basin. Each June, approximately sixty elaborately adorned horses set out from Onigoe Sōzen Shrine in Takizawa City, parading some fourteen kilometers to Morioka Hachimangu Shrine. The festival takes its name from the soft, rhythmic jingling of the countless bells attached to the horses as they walk.

Hashimoto has swum in and wandered along the Kitakami River since childhood. The landscape he has known all his life continues to shift slowly, almost imperceptibly, yet inevitably. "You come to notice. That is what photography is," he says.

On Saturday, May 16, the gallery will host a talk event with the artist, moderated by Zen Foto Gallery director Mark Pearson, where the artist will share "three secrets in photography."

Who is the one passing by the store?
Dreams always pass by, riding on handcarts
Boiled autumn chestnuts lie in rows
The cries of women sending their men off on ships
sound like the waters of the Kitakami River:
Ahhh... ahhh…

Then and now,
when the river is lit by the mountain’s evening sun
Only the scent of dry grass and the sound of
water remain
Deep inside the Kannon temple grounds
It becomes a single stream,
the thread of all beginnings
— from Mikiro Sasaki’s introductory poem, “Kitakami River – A Memorandum for Shoko Hashimoto”

Born in Ishinomaki in 1939, Shoko HASHIMOTO graduated from Nihon University, College of Art in 1964, specializing in photography. In 1974, he received the Newcomer Award from the Photographic Society of Japan with his photobook “Goze” (Nora-sha), documenting blind women entertainers who performed and told stories in exchange for food and shelter. In the same year, the series was selected for the “15 Photographers” exhibition at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and collected by the museum. Hashimoto actively photographed Lee Dynasty folk paintings in Korea from 1979 to 1981. He had travelled to Nagano, Yamagata, Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Yamanashi and Miyagi prefectures to document the folk customs of Japan that were gradually disappearing as a photojournalist. Since 2011, he has regularly returned to photograph his hometown, Ishinomaki, which was devastated by the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. His recent solo exhibitions include: “Goze” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2013; Zeit-Foto Salon, 2014), “Nishiyama Onsen — Empire of Nakedness” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2014), “A Village Lullaby” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2015), “Biwa Houshi” (Zeit-Foto Salon, 2016), “Literary Scholars” (Sokyusha, 2017), “Goze” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2020), “Goze — Shoko Hashimoto” (Ikeda Art Museum, Niigata, 2022), and “Goze” (AN-A Fundación, Barcelona, 2022). His publications include: “Goze” (Aron Shobo, 1988), “Kitakami River” (Shumpusha, 2014), “Nishiyama Onsen” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2014), “Kitakami River New Edition” (Shumpusha, 2015), “Undergrowth” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2016), “San’ya 1968.8.1–8.20” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2017), “Goze Asahigraph Reprint” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2019), “Goze” (New Complete Edition, Zen Foto Gallery, 2021), and "Ishinomaki" (Zen Foto Gallery, 2023)