A Photographer Who Exposed the Scars and Traumas of Postwar Japan

The story of Yokosuka, as told by photographer Ishiuchi Miyako, takes place in lonely, foreboding streets, where the miracle of Japan’s postwar economy seems to not have shaken off the grit and grime of history. If not for the occasional human figure, the naval city south of Tokyo could be mistaken for a ghost town of old signs and shuttered storefronts. The images suggest some kind of injury or trauma not redressed, a city forever cursed by the pall that lurks in every frame. Such scars and traces of history recur throughout Miyako’s 40-year career, now exhibited in a retrospective at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Ishiuchi Miyako: Postwar Shadows celebrates one of the few women coming out of the are, bure, boke (grainy, blurry, and out-of-focus) style of photography whose most recognizable practitioner may be Daidō Moriyama. Miyako’s early works from the late 1970s certainly resemble the gritty, shoot-from-the-hip style of the time. Like her contemporaries, she was also interested in portraying a darker, less flattering side of Japan that conflicted with national narratives of postwar prosperity.

As a child, Miyako grew up in the port town of Yokosuka, which she would revisit on multiple occasions to create two series of works, Yokosuka Story (1976–1977) and Yokosuka Again (1980–1990). The Getty exhibit presents the series side by side, and although the images span almost two decades, the city looks remarkably unchanged over time. With their dark and grainy focus, which makes even the sky look oppressive and claustrophobic, these photographs represent not an affectionate homecoming, but a haunting encounter with childhood fears.

Few images show explicit depictions of the US military, but the American naval base occupying the town seems to be the source of its shadowy entropy. The museum’s wall text reports that Miyako was “fueled by hatred and dark memories” of the military presence. Her interest in documenting the navy’s effect on the city also seems to be...