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By Ryuzo Suzuki / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Photographer Eamonn Doyle’s work, titled “K,” is displayed at Higashi Honganji’s O-genkan building, which was built in 1867 and is the oldest existing structure in the temple. In the exhibition venue, where music incorporating an Irish lamentation song for the dead drifts through the air and curtains made of Irish linen shimmer in the wind, photographs printed on silk are displayed like ghosts wandering through the landscape. Scenography by Niall Sweeney.
By Ryuzo Suzuki / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Photographer
18:25 JST, April 27, 2025
KYOTO — Kyotographie, an annual international photography festival, kicked off in Kyoto City earlier this month.
The event, which launched in 2013 and marks its 13th anniversary this year, recorded over 270,000 visits last year. This year, 14 cutting-edge artists and groups of all generations from Japan and abroad are participating in the festival, which is being held across 14 venues.
One of the most consistent and significant features of Kyotographie is that great artworks and the appeal of each venue are expressed through a variety of spatial presentations following a common theme that differs each year.
This year, the theme is Humanity.
By Ryuzo Suzuki / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Photographer People look at “Dress,” a photograph by Hiromi Tsuchida, one of two pieces from the artwork titled “Little Boy” on display at Hachiku-an, a machiya traditional wooden town house built in 1926 and a former residence of the Kawasaki family. Scenography by Spinning Plates.
According to Lucille Reyboz and Yusuke Nakanishi, cofounders and codirectors of the festival, the theme reflects on humanity’s capacity for love, empathy and resilience and is illuminated through two distinct cultural perspectives: the Japanese and the Western, exploring the diversity of human experience.
By Ryuzo Suzuki / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Photographer The retrospective of Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide is held for the first time in Japan at the Kyoto City Museum of Art Annex, which opened in 2000. The building is a renovation of the Kyoto city public hall’s Higashi-kan building, which was completed in 1930. Sixteen plasterers and one paper mounting craftsman worked together to produce exhibition panels. Scenography by Mauricio Rocha Iturbide.
When it comes to spatial production, the term “scenography,” the concept of including scenery and music in an exhibition, is getting more and more use. Yet the concept behind the word has been an important aspect of Kyotographie since the event’s launch. This year, too, many scenographers have made an effort to produce exhibition spaces in historical buildings and other venues in Kyoto City.
By Ryuzo Suzuki / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Photographer People walk by a gigantic collage titled “The Chronicles of Kyoto, 2024” by French artist JR, displayed on the wall of the northern passage of the Kyoto Station building. Portraits of about 500 Kyoto residents were woven into a collage of various Kyoto landscapes. Scenography by Hiromitsu Konishi.
Ireland’s Eamonn Doyle is exhibiting his work “K” at Higashi Honganji temple’s O-genkan building, which was built in 1867. He said the venue is the “perfect location” for his exhibition, which consists of his mother Kathryn’s letters to his brother, who died suddenly, and images of shrouded and spectral figures. He said the scenography is equally important to his photographs.
By Ryuzo Suzuki / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Photographer “A Kyoto Hair-Itage,” a series of works by Laetitia Ky from Cote d’Ivoire, are on display at Demachi Masugata shopping street in Kyoto City. The selfie-style pictures feature the artist with her “hair sculptures” using materials such as wire. Scenography by team raw row inc.
Niall Sweeney, the curator and scenographer for the exhibition featuring Doyle’s works, explains that as photography is becoming increasingly digitized, it is more important than ever to harmonize existing analog elements with modern photography to enable viewers to appreciate works with an enriched heart.
David Donohoe, who incorporated an Irish lamentation song for the dead in the music he composed for the exhibition, said that what the team has put together has generated new energy beyond their expectations in the sacred place in Kyoto, where death, life and grief all resonate.
By Ryuzo Suzuki / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Photographer The exhibition “My Parents and I” by Taiwan artist Hsing-Yu Liu takes place at Gallery Sugata, which was reportedly once a shop of a kimono wholesaler. Scenography by Shunsuke Kimura (SSK).
The exhibition will run through May 11. The price of admission varies depending on the venue, ranging from free to ¥1,500 for adults. A passport ticket that allows admission to all venues is also available.
Another event called “KG+” is taking place in the city at the same time. Many artists from Japan and abroad are exhibiting visual works at more than 120 locations, such as temples and hotels. Admission to most of these events is free. A music event called Kyotophonie is also being held.
