Ihei Kimura
Japanese photographer (1901-1974)
Ihei Kimura (木村 伊兵衛, Kimura Ihei; 12 December 1901 – 31 May 1974) was a Japanese photographer, known for his portrayal of Tokyo and Akita Prefecture.
Life and work
Born on 12 December 1901 in Shitaya-ku (now Taitō-ku), Tokyo, Kimura started taking photographs when very young but his interest intensified when he was around 20 and living in Tainan, Taiwan, where he was working for a sugar wholesaler. He opened a photographic studio in Nippori, Tokyo in 1924. In 1930, he joined the advertising section of the soap and cosmetics company Kaō, concentrating on informal photographs made with his Leica camera. In 1932, Kimura was a central figure in the coterie magazine Kōga (光画; 1932–1933), which helped spur the development of Shinkō shashin (“New Photography”) in Japan. In 1933, he joined Yōnosuke Natori and others in forming the group Nippon Kōbō ("Japan workshop"), which emphasized "realism" in photography using 35mm cameras; but this rapidly broke up and Kimura formed an alternative group, Chūō Kōbō ("central workshop") with Nobuo Ina and others.
During the war, Kimura worked in Manchukuo and for the publisher Tōhō-sha. He edited Front, the propaganda photo journal of the Tōhō-sha company. He also contributed to a propaganda magazine, Shashin Shūhō, in the same period.
In 1950, Kimura was elected chairman of the newly formed Japan Professional Photographers Society (JPS); together with Ken Domon he did much to encourage a documentary spirit in amateur photography.
“Ihei Kimura” enters the record as japanese photographer (1901-1974). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ihei, Kimura and Japanese can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Ihei Kimura” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Ihei, Kimura and Japanese provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3106591. VIAF identifies the subject as 14941007. The Library of Congress control number is n85032740. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1901, 1974, 1924 and 1930.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Ihei Kimura”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Ihei Kimura primary sources, Ihei Kimura archive and Ihei research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ihei Kimura”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Ihei Kimura” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.