Shōji Ōtake was a Japanese photographer famous for portraits and nudes. Ōtake was born in Yokosuka, Shizuoka on 15 May 1920, the oldest son of a father who worked in the sake industry and a mother who performed on the koto and flute. The boy's mother died when he was six, and he moved to the house of his father's elder sister, his younger brother moved to another house, both in Yokosuka, while his father tried and failed in the transportation industry and quickly moved to Tokyo. A year later, the boy moved to the house of a rich family, still in Yokosuka. He started at school, quickly showing an aptitude for drawing, gaining a special mention in a national contest. Shōji moved to Tokyo with his father in 1928, living in Nippori with his father's new wife. He became a keen photographer when very young. Ōtake joined the army, but was able to work as a photographer. In 1947 he managed to attach himself to GHQ, for which he photographed singers and actresses at the Ernie Pyle Theatre. From 1949 he became involved in a succession of photographic organizations, as he continued work as a photojournalist. Starting in 1951, he spent five years photographing classical and other musicians from around the world during their stays in Japan; these photographs were published in Asahi Camera and in 1955 were collected in the highly praised book World Musicians. He was also publishing nude photographs in the magazines Camera and Photo Art. From the 1950s through the 1970s, Ōtake moved to become the top photographer of women in Japan. For five years from 1971, Ōtake photographed housewives and "OL" nude on Nippon Television; this work too was later collected into books. By the 1980s, Ōtake's fame and commercial success as a portraitist and photographer of nudes had eclipsed his earlier and very different work. Republication within the volume dedicated to him of the series "Shōwa Shashin Zenshigoto", and the publication the following year of Haruka naru uta, brought it great acclaim. Besides photography, Ōtake has also worked as television screenwriter and an essayist. As a photographer, he has remained active in his late 80s. Among the photographers who have trained under Ōtake are Mineko Orisaku and Sanae Numata.
Books
Books devoted to Ōtake's work
Sekai no ongakuka / World Musicians. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 1955.
Onna no naka no onna. Tokyo: Geibunsha, 1969.
JanettoJanet. Tokyo: Nippon Camera-sha, 1974.
Teru hi kumoru hi. Tokyo: Nippon Camera-sha, 1976.
Shōwa gunzō Tokyo: Nippon Camera-sha, 1997.. A collection of Ōtake's black and white portraits from the 1950s to the 1980s, with an emphasis on earlier material.
Shōji Ōtake no "renzu kansōgaku": Raika renzu to kōseiha renzu. Supplement to Asahi Camera, December 1998.
Haruka naru kagami: Aru shashinka no shōgen. Tokyo: Tōkyō Shinbun Shuppankyoku, 1998..
Jidai no kao. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 2002. Portraits.
Akasaka Hinokichō Tekisasu Hausu. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha, 2006.. Text and photographs by Ōtake, who looks back at his time with the television and other stars of the 1960s in an Asakusa apartment dubbed Texas House.
