KAI Fusayoshi 甲斐 扶佐義

KAI Fusayoshi (born 1949 in Oita, Japan) is a Kyoto-based photographer, writer, and the owner of Bar Hachimonjiya. He began photographing at age 11 and has spent decades documenting Kyoto’s everyday life, publishing more than 40 photobooks and holding over 100 solo exhibitions in Japan and internationally.

In 1972 he co-founded the café Honyarado, and in 1985 he opened Bar Hachimonjiya, both of which became important cultural meeting places in Kyoto. In 2015, a fire at Honyarado destroyed around 2 million black-and-white negatives, nearly 90% of his archive, a loss that reshaped how he thinks about memory, work, and what remains.

His awards include the Kyoto Art and Culture Award (2009), the Jean Larivière Prize at the Paris Beaux-Arts exhibition (2014), and the Kyoto Prefecture Cultural Award (Merit) (2023). (Website, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, X.com)