was Japan's first female photojournalist.
Early life
Sasamoto was born in Tokyo, Japan. She went to a college of home economics, but quit because of her ambition to become a painter. After dropping out, she attended an institute of painting without telling her parents, and a dressmaking school.
Career
Sasamoto started her career as a part-time illustrator on the local news pages in Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun (now
Mainichi Shimbun
The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by
In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English-language news website called , and publishes a bilin ...
, one of the newspapers in Japan). At 26, she got promoted to a probationary employee in 1940 when she joined
the Photographic Society in Japan, officially becoming the first female photojournalist in Japan. She stated that
Margaret Bourke-White
Margaret Bourke-White (; June 14, 1904 – August 27, 1971) was an American documentary photography, documentary photographer and photojournalist. She was known as an architectural and commercial photographer for the first half of her career, ...
was a major influence in why she became a photographer.
Sasamoto photographed subjects from General
Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American general who served as a top commander during World War II and the Korean War, achieving the rank of General of the Army (United States), General of the Army. He served with dis ...
during the American
occupation of Japan
Japan was occupied and administered by the Allies of World War II from the surrender of the Empire of Japan on September 2, 1945, at the war's end until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect on April 28, 1952. The occupation, led by the ...
to striking coalminers and protesting students.
She published a photo book in 2011 called ''Hyakusai no Finder'', or ''Centenarian’s Finder''.
In 2014, Sasamoto had an exhibit of her work from her 2011 book called ''Hyakusai Ten'', or, ''Centenarian’s Exhibition''.
In 2015, Sasamoto published another book, ''Inquisitive Girl at 101''.
She broke her left hand and both legs in 2015 but continued to photograph. Prior to her death, Sasamoto was working on a project called ''Hana Akari'' (''Flower Glow'') in honor of her friends who had died.
Sasamoto
turned 100
A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100. Because life expectancies at birth worldwide are well below 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. The United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living centenarian ...
in September 2014,
and died of natural causes on 15 August 2022, at the age of 107.
Awards
2016:
Lucie Award for Lifetime Achievement
References
External links
Author page at AmazonInterview with Tsuneko Sasamoto(in Japanese)
* ''Nihon shashinka jiten'' () / ''328 Outstanding Japanese Photographers.'' Kyoto: Tankōsha, 2000. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sasamoto, Tsuneko
1914 births
2022 deaths
Japanese photojournalists
Japanese women centenarians
Photographers from Tokyo
Women photojournalists
20th-century Japanese photographers
21st-century Japanese photographers
20th-century Japanese women photographers
21st-century Japanese women photographers