Stetement by Hiroko Kuboyama

Started from a barbershop. Around 1983, red-brick old town view still existed in Aoya-cho, Tottori city. When I was walking around with my camera on my shoulder, I found a barbershop which fully opened it's front glass door. The shop's name was Kawata Barbershop. At the entrance, a heater looking like a broken robot squatted, and at a tatami room at the right back where was one step higher than shop's floor, I didn't know why but four TVs were stacked, and an old cat closely resembling the owner was sleeping on a shelf for laying scissors and blades. Holy cow, there still is this kind of shop! I stepped into the inside world of a time capsule and begged,“Please let me take pictures,”repeatedly to the　owner, already pressing the shutter. Heavily used tools and a bland new calendar. Uncoordinated inside of the store, where the owner's character was reflected, was a wonder world. I was so excited and kept on taking photos until dusk regardless of customers. Since then, I was fascinated by barbershops and went around Tottori to look for those. Gradually my interests extended to old shops other than barbershop, I custom-ordered a wooden large camera using a l90mm by 240mm film because I wanted to record details which the naked eye overlooked, and drove from one town to the next with my camera.“Is there any shop unchanged since olden times in this town?”“Until recently the pharmacy right there opened, but now they closed.”Some shops were vanishing while I was taking photos, so it was race against time. These shops silently existing at folds of mountains of San-in will disappear before long.

Yoshimi Ikemoto is a photographer based in Tottori Japan.
To view more of Yoshimi Ikemoto's work, please visit his website.

Sasama Barbershop, 1983



Sasama Barbershop, 1983



Sasama Barbershop, 1983



Yamane Barbershop, 1987



Yamane Barbershop, 1987



Yamane Barbershop, 1987



Yamane Barbershop, 1987



Yamane Barbershop, 1987



Kawata Barbershop, 1983



Kawata Barbershop, 1983



Kawata Barbershop, 1983



Kawata Barbershop, 1983



Kawata Barbershop, 1983



Kawata Barbershop, 1983



Kawata Barbershop, 1983