CHIKURA, Yukari (Tokyo)Zaido

Beginning and ending sections of the book printed on silver paper and some pages printed on translucent paper

This book is Yukari Chikura's preservation of the 1300-year-old Japanese ritual festivity “Zaido.” Following a series of tragedies including her father's sudden death, her own critical accident and the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, Chikura recalls how her father came to her in a dream with the words: “Go to the village hidden deep in the snow where I lived a long time ago.” And so with camera in hand she set off on a restorative pilgrimage to northeast Japan (the first of numerous journeys), which resulted in this book.

Chikura arrived at the village, surreally silver in the snow and mist, and there discovered Zaido, where inhabitants from different villages gather on the second day of each new year and conduct a ritual dance to induce good fortune. The performers dedicate their sacred dance to the gods and undergo severe purifications. Combining photos of snowscapes that border on abstraction with images of the intricate masks and costumes of Zaido, Chikura depicts the cultural diversity of the participants as well as their common bond in creating collective memory and ensuring the survival of this ritual.

YUKARI CHIKURA after graduating from university of music, she became a music composer, arranger and programmer. She is the winner of STEIDL BOOK AWARD and her work "ZAIDO" was published by STEIDL in 2020. ( ZAIDO was selected as "Best Photo Book 2020" of Photo-eye, VOGUE, LensCulture, PhotobookStore, 1000 Words, Vanity Fair, All About Photo.com, Photobook Journal among others.) Her works have been collected in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) , TATE (Martin Parr Collection), Griffin Museum and Bibliotheque nationale de France.  She won LensCulture Emerging Talent Awards 2016, LUCIE PHOTOBOOK PRIZE (Finalist),  Julia Margaret Cameron Award ( 1st ) , IPA International Photography Awards (1st), Sony World Photography Awards, Photolucida Critical Mass TOP50 2016 & 2015. She held lots of exhibitions at museum, galleries around the world. Her work was selected as “FOTOFEST Discoveries of the Meeting Place, "IPA Best of Show photographer" (Lucie Foundation). She was an artist in residence of Rokko International Photography Festival. She was nominated “Leica Oskar Barnack Award”. Her work was published by NY Times, Guardian, Financial Times, Vanity Fair, Vice Magazine among others.