KAI Fusayoshi (甲斐 扶佐義) is a photographer and writer based in Kyoto, Japan. He was born in 1949 in Oita City. He also runs the bar Hachimonjiya.
He started taking photographs at age 11, when his older sister gave him a camera. In 1972 he opened the café Honyarado with friends. In 1985 he opened Hachimonjiya.
He has spent decades photographing Kyoto in black and white. He has more than 40 photo collections and co-authored books to his name. He has held more than 100 individual exhibitions in Japan. His book Kyoto Laid Bare (Getsuyosha, 2025) gathers about 40 years of his street photography in the city. It is organised by seven areas where he walks.
In 2015, a fire destroyed Honyarado and almost 90 percent of his life's work, about 2 million negatives.
His awards include the Kyoto Fine Arts and Culture Award (2009), the Jean Larivière Award of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris (2014) and the Kyoto Prefecture Cultural Award, Distinguished Service Award (2023).
