The great Cartier-Bresson, known for his ability to capture the "decisive moment," seeing Tomiyama's penetrating social criticism expressed through images, exclaimed, "I can't just rest on my own merits."

"Why is the negative jet-black?" thought a man as he looked around with uncertainty in a darkroom, the renovated space under the stairs of a narrow house. He was dripping with a cold sweat. He had not studied to become a professional photographer at school but had learned techniques for developing photographs by reading many camera magazines, and he thought that he knew enough about developing photographs. He was following the description of how to develop photographs as it appeared in the camera magazine Darkroom Technique, but even though he had developed several films, they had all turned jet-black. He had no idea why this had happened. He had just put up the 'Developing, Printing, Enlarging (D.P.E.)' signboard in front of his elder brother's watchmaker shop. Even though some people might say, "It is foolish for somebody who has not studied photography to start up a D.P.E shop," he was undeterred and enthusiastically declared, "I will work in the photography business." It was about 1957, the beginning of the first camera boom, so customers came immediately. He was determined to not waste the customers' film. He put up the D.P.E. signboard even though he did not have a camera. He borrowed 'Pearl' from his friend, and he tried to develop the film he had taken, but unfortunately nothing was reproduced, and all he had was jet-black negatives. He was not sure what he should do, so in the end, he asked his friend. After that, his friend entered the darkroom and turned off the lights. "Oh, I had been working in the darkroom with the lights on!" It is a funny story when one thinks about it now, but Haruo Tomiyama actually made this mistake when he was young.

Haruo Tomiyama heard about photography for the first time when he was about twenty years old, which is rather late when considering his contemporaries. Tomiyama went out with his friends one day, when one of them took a photograph for "memories." Tomiyama was surprised to see the camera, which captured the scene in an image, and he wondered how it worked. In addition, his motivation to take up photography was different from that of other photographers. He began photography as a source of income. Other photographers explain their motivation for taking up photography as "the desire to create something and the need for fulfillment." However, Tomiyama did not have time to think about his desires. He took up photography so that he could support a severely financially burdened household with his recently learned photographic knowledge. Tomiyama's family was poor, so he worked at the Nippon Felt Co. Ltd. cotton mill after he left junior high school. He believed that study was necessary to survive in society, so he resigned from the cotton mill four and a half years later and entered a part-time school called the 'Tokyo Metropolitan Koishikawa Senior High School.' Nevertheless, Tomiyama left high school one year before the completion of his studies. He worked during the daytime at his brother's watchmaker shop and was often tired from that, so he used to fall asleep during lessons. The teacher cruelly called on Tomiyama when he fell asleep in class. This happened many times, and eventually, Tomiyama got very angry and hit the teacher. He was forced to withdraw from high school. His great ambition to improve his future through study was crushed. If this had happened to a regular person, they would become very pessimistic, but not Tomiyama. At that time, he began to get interested in photography. He tried to study photography by going to used-book stores, buying and collecting camera magazines such as Photo Art and pictorials such as Weekly Sun News. He would remove the bindings from those magazines and combine pages concerning photography and darkroom technology together to make one book. Moreover, he compiled two photo albums in addition. His friend at a bookbinders bound a book for him. Tomiyama benefited from the 'Technique section' and put up the D.P.E. signboard in front of the watchmaker shop. After that, Tomiyama put out a "Photographic developing" sign at the used-book stores in Jujo, Tokyo, that he often visited, and he would pick up the undeveloped film that customers had dropped off there. Tomiyama preferred to develop photographs rather than help his elder brother in the watchmaker shop. He enjoyed seeing the moment when the images appear on the film in the darkroom. Tomiyama opened one D.P.E. shop in Itabashi, Tokyo, one and a half years later. He was able to buy a camera for the first time in his life. The camera was a Konica type 2. After buying a camera, it is certain that you will want to take many photographs. Tomiyama left his older sister to tend the shop while he attended various photo sessions and entered contests that were held monthly in magazines and at shopping arcades. At that time, the shopping arcade prizes were popular. The album and camera magazine that Tomiyama had made using secondhand magazines were very useful. He very carefully read the selection criteria and evaluation comments of the monthly contests, researching the individual people who were responsible for selecting and evaluating the photos. After this research, he took photos that he knew the judges had a tendency to choose, and he developed beautiful prints. For that reason, it was easy for him to be chosen as a winner. He frequently won prizes, so he used friends' names for the registration. One time he won 1st place to 9th place in the same contest. It was precisely a sweep. After he began participating in photo sessions, he made photographer friends and exchanged information in their hangout coffee shops in Yaesu and Asagaya. Tomiyama became acquainted with the assistant of Jun Miki (1919-1992) and developed Miki's film in the darkroom under the stairs. He also made contacts. In 1958, Tomiyama's photography friends asked him whether he was interested in becoming a part-time photographer for the recently established Josei Jishin magazine. Tomiyama began to want to become a genuine photographer, like Henri-Cartier Bresson, and not a man in the D.P.E. shop, so he immediately jumped into the magazine journalism world. At that time, magazine journalism publications were experiencing an unprecedented boom in Japan. The Weekly Shincho, which began in 1956, was popular, and this led to the publication of other new magazines such as Josei Jishin, Weekly Myojo, Shukan Josei, and Weekly Taishu, which were started one after the other. Of course, general magazines such as Sekai, Chuo Kouron (Central Review), and Bungei Shunju also positively featured photo spread documentaries. Tomiyama, who had just become a photographer, yearned to be one of the photographers whose names were printed in these photo spreads.

Haruo Tomiyama went from managing a town D.P.E shop to being a part-time photographer for the newly established weekly magazine Josei Jishin in 1958. At that time, there was a 'Michie Boom' all over Japan, before the prince's marriage to her. In a press conference, Michiko talked about her impression of the prince, "The prince is pure-hearted and sincerely honest. I really trust him." Michiko's words became buzzwords and the bandeau, princess line, and V-neck tops that Michiko wore also became popular. In addition, many families bought a television set in order to watch the live coverage of the marriage parade in April 1959 from their own home. Amazingly, the number of television sets shot up from only about 100,000 in 1955 to over 1 million in 1958. Tomiyama was a new part-time photographer for a weekly magazine who did not know anything about photojournalism. His job was to take photographs to accompany the article about Michiko. In the shoot, he took a photo of her playing tennis, and it was used for the article. Tomiyama heard that Michiko would come to Higashi-Kuni-no-Miyake one day, so he disguised himself as a plasterer and scrambled onto the roof of a house in front of the Higashi-Kuni-no-Miyake, where he took a photo of Michiko with the Pentax camera that had been concealed in his bucket. This was Tomiyama's first big scoop. However, as time passed, the young Tomiyama was not satisfied with only taking photos that would accompany articles in the weekly magazine. Certainly, he may not have been able to feel the excitement that he got by disguising himself to get a scoop if he had been in another profession. Every time he got a scoop, the weekly magazine sold very well, but this was because the subjects in the photograph had commercial value. In Haruo Tomiyama's eyes, just because the magazine sold well did not mean that it was worthy. In particular, when Tomiyama took charge of the photo spread project 'Modern Beauty Science-Birth of Beautiful Women' four years after becoming the part-time photographer of Josei Jishin, he recruited models who had undergone plastic surgery and asked himself, "What am I doing?" He began to have serious doubts about his photographs that only had meaning in women's weeklies and questioned the meaning of the subjects of his photographs. He wanted to take more photographs that were related to society. He began to feel like this because he clearly remembered the excitement he experienced when he was involved in the 1960 campaign against the Japan-U.S. Treaty, and this encouraged him. The revised Japan-U.S. Security Treaty was decided on and passed solely by the Liberal-Democratic Party at 12:06 in the morning of May 20, 1960. The "anti-Security Treaty" movement, which had begun a year earlier, rose up into a nationwide mass civil movement as a result of this event. On May 20, led chiefly by the National Federation of Students Self-Government Association and the National Federation of Labor, 100,000 people rushed to the prime minister's official residence. In order to defend the official residence from the daily demonstrations, a barbwire fence was constructed around the periphery on the 23rd. The representatives of the Social Democratic Party, including Chairman Inejiro Asanuma, proceeded to the American Embassy on the 24th, demanding that "a telegraph requesting the postponement of President Eisenhower's visit to Japan be sent to the United States." On the 26th, the National Assembly for Stopping the Security Treaty Revisions organized the 16th united action, with 170,000 demonstrators encircling the National Diet Building. On June 4, 5.6 million people from throughout the country participated in the anti-treaty strike, led chiefly by the National Railway Worker's Union and the Nihon National Railway Motive Power Union. As a result, 2,200 trains were out of service that day. White House Press Secretary Hagerty arrived in Japan on the 10th, and he was engulfed by a demonstration led by a dissident group of the National Federation of Students Self-Government Association at Haneda Airport. He escaped by helicopter and left Japan the next day. The Foreign Relations Committee of the American Senate approved the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and the United States of America on the 14th. On the 15th, to stop the Security Treaty Revisions, people power was used for the second time, with 5.8 million people from throughout the country participating in this event. Demonstrators from the National Federation of Students Self-Government Association rushed into the Diet and fought against police officers and the right wing. Michiko Kanba, a student at the University of Tokyo, died from traumatic asphyxia in the disorder. A total of 182 people were arrested before dawn, and 100 people or more were injured. The Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and the United States of America was approved at twelve o'clock in the morning of June 19 without the resolution of the House of Councilors.

Tomiyama spent the last few days of this campaign against the Japan-U.S. Treaty on the noisy roof of the prime minister's official residence, where he set up a camera to cover the unfolding events. The demonstrators yelling slogans in chorus, the police officers' roars … the poor students-the world in Tomiyama's eyes had become pitch-dark. He was not able to take even one dramatic photograph. However, he thought, "I should watch society closely and take a defiant attitude." He developed that driving force. At this time, Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi said, "I should listen to the 'Silent majority," and he did not alter his overpowering attitude, and after revising and approving the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and the United States, he resigned. The Hayato Ikeda Cabinet was formed under the slogan "Leniency and Patience." It also announced the 'National Income Doubling Plan' on September 5 of the same year. In the plan, an average annual growth rate of 7.2 percent was expected every year for ten years from 1961 to 1970, doubling gross national product from 13 trillion yen to 26 trillion yen, and individual income to 288,000 yen. The focus shifted from politics to economics.

Haruo Tomiyama was no longer satisfied to be a part-time Josei Jishin photographer. He was introduced to Shigeo Ebima, who was a designer, and met Senzo Yoshioka and Gen Otsuka, who were heads of the photo publication department of Asahi Shinbun Publishing Co. Photographs of Yoshioka and Otsuka were printed in many photography magazines that appeared in the used-book stores even before Tomiyama began the D.P.E shop. Tomiyama referred to their works when taking photographs. In other words, Yoshioka and Otsuka were Tomiyama's inspiration, even though they had never actually met. Yoshioka said to him, "Do you want to make a documentary for the Asahi Graph or would you prefer to take photographs for women's weeklies?" Tomiyama was deeply moved by what Yoshioka had said. He started to report on events such as 'Recovering the dead bodies suspended in the air at Mt. Tanigawa' (issued on October 9, 1960), and 'Devastated village' (issued on November 27, 1960) in the Asahi Graph. The former story is about how SDF personnel recovered dead bodies that were dangling from a climbing rope on the mountainside; the SDF personnel, using a carbine gun, shot the climbing rope so that the bodies would fall to the ground. The latter story is about the depopulation of villages that began to become a social problem in the 1960s. Furthermore, Tomiyama became a part-time photographer of the Asahi Shinbun Publishing Co. photo publication department in 1963, one year before the Tokyo Olympics. After Tomiyama had become a part-time photographer, he demonstrated his remarkable talent and his peculiar instinctive intuition. He was involved in the creation of the serial photo spread pages, 'The Sense of Modern Languages (Gendaigo Kan),' of Asahi Journal (launched in 1959) and was recognized as a photographer in the truest sense of the word. This series of photo spreads continued for about one and a half years from September 1964. "We chose two-character words from among the words seen in the newspaper and attempted to express its nuance through an image." This was a conception of the playwright Tadashi Iizawa. Famous people such as the writer Kobo Abe selected two-character words, and the photographer would then develop an image using this two-character word from social events to parody society. This series continued 68 times in total, and Tomiyama was in charge of the photography a total of 42 times. The main themes that he covered were 'Kamitsu (High Density),' 'Rentai (Coupling),' 'Kansho (Observation),' 'Shiiku (Breed),' 'Shuso (Complaint),' 'Teinen (Retirement Age),' 'Jishu (Autonomy),' 'Teichaku (Settlement),' 'Fuzai (Absence),' 'Kyoyo (Tolerance),' 'Anju (Live in Peace),' 'Jiritsu (Independence),' and 'Majo (Witch)'…. The words that illustrate the social conditions of Japan in the 1960s are catalogued like a 'Dictionary of Modern Language.' The situations when Tomiyama took those photographs are very interesting. Actual couples in front of the Imperial Palace were photographed for 'Rentai (Coupling)' (September 27, 1964, issue); Tomiyama and a female friend, pretending to be a couple, commuted to the Imperial Palace for one week. If Tomiyama had gone by himself, he was afraid that people might mistake him for a 'Peeping Tom,' so he asked his female friend to go with him to prevent such a misunderstanding. Tomiyama and his friend sat together on the stonewall of the moat, where embracing couples, defending their territory, were separated about 2 meters apart. He waited for the couples to kiss. As for 'Kyoyo (Tolerance)' (February 21, 1965, issue), Tomiyama took photographs of an overcrowded train during rush hour. He discovered the train that arrived at Shinjuku Station at 8:32 to be the most crowded. Subsequently, he boarded the train from Mitaka Station and climbed up to the luggage rack when the train had passed Nakano Station, and he took photographs of the passengers hustling and jostling with a fish-eye lens. Tomiyama tried to find volleyball players who had the potential to be like Nichibo Kaiduka, who had won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics for 'Majo (Witch)' (April 11, 1965, issue). He went to see whether there was a kindergarten with a volleyball class, but unfortunately, no such kindergarten existed. He took the photograph of a volleyball club in a junior high school, although it was not his original intention. For 'Value,' Tomiyama covered the 'Golden bath tub,' which had a price of 130 million yen at the time he took the picture (June 20, 1965, issue). The fee for bathing in it was very expensive, '1,000 yen for 2 minutes,' but Tomiyama heard that 2,500 people per month visited it, and he immediately went to Izu. He waited for 3 hours in the Golden bath tub and then another 3 hours … He did not give up, and at last, he was able to take the photograph in which a middle-aged man with a big belly and a satisfied look was taking a bath. At that time, Tomiyama's shirt and trousers were very wet because of the sweat and steam, so his episodes are very interesting.

Photo critic Tsutomu Watanabe criticized Tomiyama's The Sense of Modern Languages (Gendaigo Kan), and stated that Tomiyama does not use overpowering, obvious aspects to indicate the actual contradiction in his photographs-producing the feeling of an advertising campaign. Instead, he approaches the objects from his own objective point of view, reflecting on how taking the photograph affected him. For Tomiyama, the processes he used to take the photograph are expressed in the photograph itself, a technique representative of all his work.- (abbreviated) - Therefore, his photographs express a detailed description of time-matters not exhibited in photos provided by the news-and are like a certain kind of essay (1975 Asahi Sonorama 'Contemporary photo and photographer-A review of 35 interviews'). Moreover, Shoji Yamagishi, previously the editor-in-chief of Camera Mainichi, told a story of when he showed Henri-Cartier Bresson Tomiyama's Kamitsu (High Density), published on September 13, 1954, in the Asahi Journal-a photograph that led Bresson to say with great admiration, "It is wonderful that there is a young person in Japan who can take beautiful photographs such as this one" (1971 Chuo Koron Sha "Contemporary Image [Eizo-no-Gendai] IV: The Sense of Modern Languages [Gendaigo Kan]"). These words were of the highest honor for Haruo Tomiyama, as he yearned to become a true photographer like Cartier Bresson. Tomiyama still carries around the words spoken by Cartier Bresson as his personal motto, "A photo is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression."

The abovementioned article was written about seven years ago for the Asahi Camera series "To the photographic era." In order to put it in this catalogue, some compositions of the articles were changed. The series was a project exhibiting how Japanese photography changed in the postwar era.

After the war, the contemporary history of Japanese photography started with the revisiting of realistic photographs, and the visual sense that Haruo Tomiyama innovated at this point is particularly remarkable. Tomiyama incorporated a perspective of social criticism into the photojournalism that existed up to that time.

The Sense of Modern Languages (Gendaigo Kan) is Tomiyama's most important work, and remains in the photographic history of Japan. If you have an opportunity to see it, you will be able to appreciate his remarkable vision. Presently, Tomiyama is still taking photographs for The Sense of Modern Languages (Gendaigo Kan) series. Moreover, he is producing it with a computer, as a youthful mind and intellectual curiosity. To take on the challenge of new things is a trait of photographer Haruo Tomiyama and may be the foundation of his work.

Yoshio Fukushima