Kiyoshi Nishiyama
Kiyoshi Nishiyama was a versatile Japanese amateur photographer who specialized in landscapes. Kiyoshi Nishiyama was born in Tokyo in 1893 as Kiyonosuke Nishiyama, Nishiyama became interested in photography at 15. He intended to become a professional photographer and learned retouching in a photographic studio at Ryōgoku, but never turned professional, instead in 1921 setting up a photographic supplies shop, Heiwadō, in Nihonbashi, and at about the same time starting up and leading a photographic club, the Pleasant Club (Purezanto Kurabu), and submitting his photographs to photographic magazines.
Kiyoshi Nishiyama
- Born
- 1893 · Tokyo.
- Died
- 1983
- Nationality
- Japan · Empire of Japan
- Occupation
- photographer
- Honours
- Order of the Rising Sun and 5th class
- Languages
- Japanese
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Documentary summary
Kiyoshi Nishiyama was a versatile Japanese amateur photographer who specialized in landscapes. Kiyoshi Nishiyama was born in Tokyo in 1893 as Kiyonosuke Nishiyama, Nishiyama became interested in photography at 15. He intended to become a professional photographer and learned retouching in a photographic studio at Ryōgoku, but never turned professional, instead in 1921 setting up a photographic supplies shop, Heiwadō, in Nihonbashi, and at about the same time starting up and leading a photographic club, the Pleasant Club (Purezanto Kurabu), and submitting his photographs to photographic magazines.
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Kiyoshi Nishiyama (1893–1983) was a photographer, of Japanese and Japanese nationality. The photographer was born in Tokyo.
Languages used include Japanese. Honours include Order of the Rising Sun, 5th class.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 01 October 2026
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Solo exhibitions by Nishiyama
Solo exhibitions by Nishiyama
In 1922 Nishiyama won the first prize for his submission, taken with a Vest Pocket Kodak, to a competition at the Heiwa Kinen Tōkyō Hakurankai. A year later he lost all his photographs and cameras in the Great Kantō earthquake, but persevered and held the first exhibition of the Pleasant Club in 1924. Nishiyama was impressed by the "light and its harmony" aesthetic of Shinzō Fukuhara, who invited him to join the Japan Photographic Society; Nishiyama soon thereafter had a solo exhibition at the Shiseido Gallery. From 1925 Nishiyama began the first of several series of photographs in Photo Times (Foto Taimusu) magazine; these were on a variety of subjects but most notable was Nishiyama's portrayal of the cityscape of Tokyo after the earthquake. From 1928 Shirai used a Rolleiflex camera, and turned this to photographing Nikkō and bunraku (the subjects of solo exhibitions); he later added a Leica, but from 1959 changed to a Nikon F that he always used with a 50 mm lens. Virtually all of Nishiyama's prewar work was destroyed in the bombing of Tokyo. Nishiyama continued to exhibit and publish after the war. In 1954 he won the PSJ award, and in 1977 he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, 5th class, for his services to photography. He died on 5 March 1983. Nishiyama's work is held in the permanent collections of the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography and Nihon University (which preserves what little remains of Nishiyama's prewar work).
• Shiseido Gallery (Ginza, Tokyo), 1920s • "Nikkō", Matsuzakaya (Ueno, Tokyo), 1929. Photographs of Nikkō. • "Bunraku", Nihon Salon (Ginza, Tokyo), 1935. Photographs of bunraku. • "Nihon no fūbutsu: Kita kara minami", Matsuya (Ginza, Tokyo), 1958. Photographs of Japanese scenery. • "Okinawa no fūbutsu", Marunouchi Gekkō Gallery (Marunouchi, Tokyo), 1960. Photographs of Okinawan scenery. • "Nihon no tō", Marunouchi Gekkō Gallery (Marunouchi, Tokyo), 1964. Photographs of Japanese pagodas. • "Koyomi", Marunouchi Gekkō Gallery (Marunouchi, Tokyo), 1973. Photographs of the calendar.
Identity
Identity
Kiyoshi Nishiyama is recorded as having received Order of the Rising Sun, 5th class.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1893
Kiyoshi Nishiyama was born in 1893 at Tokyo.
1983
Kiyoshi Nishiyama died in 1983.
Books by Nishiyama
• Arusu geijutsu shashin gashū dai-2-hen (Ars art photograph collection, 2nd ed). Tokyo: Ars, 1926. • Hikinobashi no jissai (The facts of enlarging). Asahi Camera Sōsho 11. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1936. • Kotō o tazunete (Visiting old pagodas). Tokyo: Jinbutsu-ōraisha, 1964. • Nihon no kotō (The pagodas of Japan). Tokyo: Kenkōsha, 1972. • Shunkō shūshoku / Seasonal Aspects of Japan. Sonorama Shashin Sensho 21. Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1979.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Tatsuo Shirai, "Seasonal Aspects of Japan" , unpaginated postface to Nishiyama, Shunkō shūshoku / Seasonal Aspects of Japan (Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1979).
- 2.So tentatively inferred from , as specified (without any reading) by Nihon no shashinka ( ) / Biographic Dictionary of Japanese Photography (Tokyo: Nichigai Associates, 2005; ), pp. 315–16. Despite the English-language alternative title, all in Japanese.
- 3.Nihon no shashinka / Biographic Dictionary of Japanese Photography, pp. 315–16.
- 4.List of past awards, PSJ. Accessed 20 December 2009.
- 5.Chronology , unpaginated appendix to Nishiyama, Shunkō shūshoku / Seasonal Aspects of Japan (Tokyo: Asahi Sonorama, 1979).
- 6.Jinbo Kyōko ( ), "Nishiyama Kiyoshi", in Nihon shashinka jiten ( ) / 328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers (Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000; ), p.243. Despite the English-language alternative title, all in Japanese.
References
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
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