CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Shinichiro Kobayashi

Japanese photographer

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ7497525 ↗
Source-derived summary

Shinichiro Kobayashi (小林 伸一郎, Kobayashi Shin'ichirō) (born 19 October 1956) is a Japanese photographer, and "the leading practitioner if not the founder of the ever-popular 'Ruins' or 'Urban Exploration' genre of photography".

Life and career

Born in Bunkyō-ku, Tokyo, on 19 October 1956, Kobayashi graduated from the Economics department of Senshu University in 1978. After working for studios and publishing, he went freelance in 1984, and set up Studio Rise (Sutajio Raizu, スタジオライズ) in 1988. He won various photography awards in the 1990s.

Prints from Kobayashi's Deathtopia series are in the permanent collection of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.

Awards

38th Kōdansha publishing culture prize for photography, 2007, for 亡骸劇場 (Nakigara gekijō) and 東京ディズニーシー (Tokyo Disneysea).

Solo exhibitions

Building the Chanel Lumière Tower. Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, March–April 2005. About the creation of the Chanel Ginza building.

Umihito 1977–1988 = 海人1977〜1988.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Shinichiro Kobayashi” as japanese photographer. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1956, 1978, 1984, 1988—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1956. The account is most persuasive where Shinichiro, Kobayashi and Japanese can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as japanese photographer. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7497525. VIAF identifies the subject as 117478844. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1956, 1978, 1984 and 1988.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. 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.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Shinichiro Kobayashi”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Shinichiro Kobayashi primary sources, Shinichiro Kobayashi archive and Shinichiro research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Shinichiro Kobayashi”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Shinichiro Kobayashi” 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.