Notable Moments

March 3, 2022

March 19 is the anniversary of the invention of the camera, and March 28 is Silk Road Day. So in this post, in honor of those two days, we would like to introduce you to a photograph taken by Inamori in Urumqi City (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) on the Silk Road.

When Kyocera was in the camera business under the brand CONTAX, Inamori, who has always loved machines like cameras, joined the CONTAX Club Kyoto, where business and cultural figures in Kyoto who love CONTAX gathered and occasionally took photos. The picture introduced here was taken by Inamori when he visited Urumqi City in the summer of 2000 to give a lecture at Xinjiang University. He noticed a girl dancing happily in a corner of the square in traditional clothes and took this photo. Urumqi is an ancient hub on the Silk Road, stretching from Chang'an (now Xi'an) through Turpan to Samarkand in the Republic of Uzbekistan. In this city, Uyghur culture can be felt everywhere.

The children are wearing kasuri-like (kasuri is Japanese fabric dyed to create patterns in the fabric), colorful silk fabrics unique to this region, known as Atlas or Etles. The Uyghurs love music and dance so much that it's said, "When a child starts walking, they start dancing. When they start talking, they start singing." Maybe these children in the photo inherited this Uyghur temperament. It seems that Inamori was attracted to their innocent appearance and quickly took the photo as he passed by them. The picture gives a sense of the warm, affectionate gaze he has for young children.

Photo 1: A photo taken by Inamori in Urumqi (2000)

Photo 2: Inamori holding his CONTAX camera (2000)

Photo 3: Photos from an exhibition sponsored by Camera Naniwa (1999)