Exhibition introduction "Taiwan Photo Daguan: Mountain Series" was published by Taiwan Photo Daguan Agency in October 1934 (Showa 9). The photographer and editor was Masahiko Kuwako.
At first glance, readers may think that Masahiko Kuwako is a well-known mountain explorer and photographer. While traveling through the mountains and forests of Taiwan, he also uses his camera to capture the stunning natural beauty before his eyes. Readers who have been trained in art history or photography history may further infer that this book must be some kind of work that presents the "imperial gaze"; Like Okada Koyo, the famous photographer of the park, Sangzi Masahiko must use his lens, with a specific composition and framing, to capture Taiwan's mountains, which were considered rough, barbaric, and lacking in symmetry and slenderness like mainland Japan. Between the square inches, it is embedded in the pages of the book, and an appropriate amount of text is added to make it a "catalogue" that urbanites can sit indoors and sip a drink while savoring page by page.
We used to think so too. However, after reviewing relevant historical materials, clarifying who Masahiko Sangzi is, and trying to sort out the vision of the empire and the ideology behind it from the images of the book, and examining the materials, processing techniques, and binding methods of the photos, we have to come to this conclusion Conclusion: Kuwako Masahiko is not a photographer, nor is he even the main photographer of this book; It will be futile.
Why do we come to this conclusion? Let us first answer, what happened in the mountains of Taiwan before and after the publication of "Taiwan Photo Grand View: Mountain Series"?
In 1934, when "Taiwan Photo Grand View: Mountain Series" was published, the forestry project led by the Forestry Division of the Government-General's Reproduction Bureau was coming to an end. Started in 1925, forestry officials trained in modern forestry aimed at Taiwan's forests, which at that time could only be generally referred to as "Tibetan land" or "official forests," and classified those that should be kept by the government as "" To save the wilderness", and the rest are classified as not to save the wilderness. In the former, forestry officials further drew the meaning of "preservation of forests and wilds" based on considerations such as aboriginal governance and multi-purpose use of forest lands, which means "deal with forests and wilds that need to be preserved". In 1931, the results of the above-mentioned divisional investigation were initially completed; the general plan stated that 1,094,619.1732 hectares of forest fields should be preserved, 200,072.3500 hectares of forest fields must be preserved, and 77,212.8020 hectares of forest fields should not be preserved, totaling 1,371,904.3252 hectares. For the storage of forests, the forestry department subdivides them into 29 business areas, and each business area is accompanied by a "business case", which lists the plan for sustainable forestry management in the next 20 years. In Taiwan's forestry history, the forest planning undertaking is a major milestone. In fact, if you want to save the forest land, which is today's state-owned forest land, you must save the forest land as the aborigines' reserved land. If you don't save the forest land, it is often the land of sugar factories and farms. After the blueprint for modern forestry was gradually completed, and the Japanese Empire entered a wartime system, the demand for timber increased day by day. Taiwan's forestry industry also entered an era of intensive management, and the intensity of logging and afforestation reached an unprecedented peak. According to forestry statistics during the Japanese colonial period, Taiwan’s timber production exceeded 1 million shi (280,000 cubic meters) in 1927, and it doubled to 2 million shi (560,000 cubic meters) 11 years later (1938). In the following year (1939), the output of timber immediately exceeded 3 million stones (840,000 cubic meters). Forestry has become the vanguard of Taiwan's military industrialization. [1]
The Government House in the 1920s was concerned with more than the sustainable use of forests. In fact, the reason why the Governor’s Office decided to start the forest planning business in 1925 was largely due to the reflection on the existing forestry policy and the exploration of forest utilization methods other than logging. Take Alishan Forest Farm, which was developed with great effort by the Governor-General's Mansion, as an example. In 1904, in the face of Alishan Forest, known as "Endless Tibet", the Governor's Office decided to transplant the latest logging facilities at that time, especially the railroad-based business model in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, in order to efficiently and sustainably log. The only virgin forest in the empire has been replaced by a well-organized plantation. By the end of the 1920s, with the gradual disappearance of the virgin forest along the Alishan Railway, calls for "conservation" of the natural scenery of Alishan gradually appeared in the society. Forestry officials are also quite embarrassed about this. They recognize the importance of landscape conservation, but the operating costs of the railway are too high. If there is no continuous logging and injection, the Alishan Forest Farm may not be sustainable. At this time, forestry officials noticed that more and more tourists took the railway up the mountain, or visited Alishan Forest Farm's various large-scale infrastructure, or continued to explore the most "primitive" heartland of Taiwan. . The forestry department began to conceive the possibility of extending the life of the railway through sightseeing. And this view is in harmony with the national policy of the Japanese Empire. In 1931, the Japanese government promulgated the "National Park Law" and established standards, and began to actively prepare for the establishment of national parks. The national park is a national park, which started with Yellowstone National Park in the United States in 1872. According to the opinion of the National Park Association of Japan, only those large landscapes accidentally created by the "creator" can be classified as national parks. On the one hand, they can be "appreciated" by the subjects of the empire, which can improve their spirituality, and on the other hand, they can attract foreigners. , Bringing foreign exchange to the embarrassing imperial finances at that time. In 1933, the Governor's Office established the Taiwan National Park Survey Committee, and the following year designated the new high Alishan, the second high Taroko, and Datun Shanhui as "national park candidate sites." In December 1937, the Governor's Office officially announced the three candidates as national parks. Even after Taiwan entered the wartime system, the term "National Park" was discarded because of its connection with "American Emperor" and entertainment; Cultivate the patriotism of the people and become the cultivation place for the subjects of the empire.
Whether it is forest planning or national parks, it means that the Governor's Office has reached a new height in the accumulation of knowledge and control methods for the mountains that used to be located in Fandi, which are equivalent to the representative of Taiwan's primitive, rough and barbaric character. Complementary to the aforementioned trends is the rise of the "modern mountaineering" trend. Tetsutaro Numai, a famous Taiwanese mountaineer during the Japanese colonial period, said that Taiwan’s mountaineering history can be divided into the prehistoric and early exploration era, the pioneering exploration era, the expedition mountaineering era, and the modern mountaineering era. He believes that in the mid-1920s, with the establishment of mountaineering groups such as the Taiwan Mountain Society, the "exploration mountaineering" that was originally dominated by the government and academia, and that mountaineering was only a means of resource survey and geographical exploration, gradually came to an end. The "modern mountaineering" of "mountain climbing for the sake of mountaineering" is dawning. Numi wrote:
"The first ascent records in this era were established by pure climbers other than official and academic investigations. In particular, the first ascent of Dabajian Mountain was created by the Taiwan Mountain Society. The awareness of mountaineering provided the driving force behind the epoch. Since then, the trend of mountaineering in Taiwan has been to make the first ascents and records of unknown high mountains, and rely on self-reliance to stand up for the first time on difficult routes. Courage and ambition have become the motivations of ordinary mountaineers.”[2]
"Taiwan Photo Grand View: Mountains" was born in this context. "A Brief History of Mountaineering in Taiwan" records, "In July 1932, with Sasaki Shunichi as the leader, Henan Hiroshi, Shimizu Zenjiro, Guping Katsuzo, Sangzi Masahiko, Yamakawa Yuji, Ogisaka Tsuyoshi and others formed the Daba Jianshan, Ji Mountaineering specializing in alpine plant surveys and photo photography." [3] "Taiwan Mountain Report" recorded the follow-up of this special study:
"The original time of the previous announcement will be postponed to September 24th (Saturday), but just before the start of the event, the originally scheduled venue was unavailable, so we had to change it to the rainy playground of Taipei Commercial School in a hurry. The above The content was not published in the newspaper, mainly because the time was the holiday time of the news agency, and there were many kinds of exhibitions in other places, so it did not reach the grand event that was expected at the beginning.”
The exhibits on that day included 107 species of plant wax leaf specimens from Dabajian Mountain and Subalpine Mountains collected by Mr. Sasaki Shunichi; Henan Hongshi also collected 87 species of plant waxy leaf specimens from Dabajian Mountain and Subalpine Mountains, and the Japanese Alps. 37 species of plant wax leaf specimens from Japan; 51 species of plant wax leaf specimens from the Japanese Alps by Mr. Shimada Yaichi; 3 species of rare snake specimens collected by Mr. Kohira Katsuzo; Photos of Takayama, Nanhu Dashan, Dabajianshan and Dawushan) (full paper); photos of Dabajianshan and sub-high mountains collected by the Henan family (20 Hanzo, 68 manuscripts); 4 types of photos (full paper) of the sub-highest mountain and Dabajian mountain; 40 kinds of photos of various places in Taiwan's mountains provided by Mr. Kobayashi of Taiwan Photo Daguan Society; large-scale sketches of Dabajian mountain and sub-highest mountain range provided by Taipei Higher School 2 types; 1 type of map of the same area provided by Mr. Sasaki. No matter which one is a beautiful thing, so that the viewer can have a sense of being in the scene.
Around 3:30 in the afternoon, Mr. Sasaki gave a speech on the topic of "Daba Jianshan, Vertical Walking and Plant Belt of Subalpine Mountains". The participants were all passionate about mountains and plants, so they listened carefully to the observations, experiences and conclusions of the presenters. The speech ended at 4:30 pm. Afterwards, they asked, discussed and chatted with each other about the exhibits. Since the exhibition was expected to end at 5 o'clock, the curtain ended with a little regret.
At the end of the exhibition, as usual, ten beautiful posters were given to Taipei Commercial School, which readily lent the venue that day, as a thank you to Taguchi and Shiro, speakers, producers and members.
The participants on that day were Suzuki, Horikawa, Sasaki, Shimada, Furuhira, Numai, Doi, Kobayashi, Caizu, Ohashi Junichiro, Yamamoto, Kanan, Yamakawa, Soko, Yamamura, Saitosai, Ito Tetsuji, Kida, and other members, plus There are about 40 non-members in total. [4]
It seems to be speculated that "Taiwan Photo Grand View: Mountain Collection" is one of the results of this "special research". From the aforementioned reports, we can almost imagine that dozens of climbers who love Taiwan’s mountains exchanged their experience in plant collection and photography in front of the plant specimens and photos lined up, and then sat and listened to Sasaki Shun’s pair of alpine plants. distribution of views. Sasaki Shunichi is a forestry official who has long devoted himself to the investigation and research of alpine flora in Taiwan. The topic he is most interested in is the comparative study of Taiwan's flora and surrounding areas, and is dedicated to discovering Taiwan's status in biogeography. Even though the gathering seemed to be unprecedentedly grand, both academic and entertaining, it can be seen from the reports that the Taiwan Mountain Club, which organized the gathering, changed the location temporarily, which attracted many enthusiastic mountaineering and photography enthusiasts Xiang Yu was not very satisfied. Was it because of this that the attendees decided to compile a photobook for their enjoyment? How many mountaineering and photography enthusiasts who were unable to be present or missed out on the day can join in the grand event? Historical data cannot answer the aforementioned questions. To answer why and for whom "Taiwan Photo Grand View: Mountain Series" was compiled, we have to find another way.
Li Xubin, another curator of this exhibition, is a researcher and photographer in the history of photography. After receiving the digitized "Taiwan Photo Grand View: Mountain Collection" from the National Center of Photography, in addition to carefully studying the composition and other details of each photo on the screen, he decided to go to the archives of the National Center of Photography to examine it with his own eyes. The "materiality" of books. The following is its live report:
"This book is turned right sideways, with two holes on the right side for thread binding. The cover is made of 3 to 4 mm thick gray cardboard pasted with pig liver-colored imitation leather pattern cover paper, and the title is handwritten in calligraphy and gold-stamped. The inner page is a volume 10mm black matte cardboard, the image is handmade silver salt photo paper, and the explanatory text is a note cut after typing. Both are glued and fixed on the black cardboard.
As far as the image itself is concerned, there are two image sizes in this book, one is about 16.5mm x 12mm, and the other is long 27.8mm x 11.4 mm. Examined with a magnifying glass, the silver particles are arranged very tightly, and should not be projected through a magnifying machine, and at that time it was not common to use a rubber-based film to be projected through a magnifying machine. In addition, most of the gelatin on the photo paper has been yellowed, and the silver particles that are unique to old photos have appeared in some parts around the image, and the photo paper itself cannot clearly distinguish whether it has the barium sulfate coating of modern photo paper. From the above clues, it can be inferred that most of the images were shot on the popular 5”x7” dry plate glass negative film at that time, and were printed by contact printing using a proof box. Another long-sized photo, presumed to be an 8”x10” dry plate glass negative, cut the mask of the negative holder in half along the long side, so that two 4”x10” images can be shot on one negative, and then printed The sample box is then printed. "
He concluded that "Taiwan Photo Grand View: Mountains" is not a photobook published in large quantities by the publishing house; perhaps Masahiko Sangzi himself, or his assistant or friend, printed each photo one by one and pasted it on the On the cardboard, cut out the picture and paste it around the photo. Each "Taiwan Photo Grand View: Mountains" is a unique existence.
We decided to call "Taiwan Photo Grand View: Mountain Chapter" a mountaineering check-in a hundred years ago. Why check in? Open everyone's Facebook or IG, and browse through a few check-in photos at will. Checking in has the meaning of visiting here; as for the location of "one visit", it is often a scenic spot that is passed on by word of mouth and cannot be missed. However, we should also be able to understand that punching in photos is not easy; in front of scenic spots where tens of thousands of people may have punched in, and when viewers can search and compare various hashtags, punching in photos must show that the punchers are not limited by the frame Ingenuity and creativity can attract attention. Perhaps it can be said that the spirit of clocking in is to "derail along the track" or "challenge the routine by following the routine."
This is the spirit we realized when we reviewed "Taiwan Photo Grand View: Mountains" page by page. In the photos included in this book, readers can not only see the famous mountains in Taiwan at that time, such as Datun Mountain, Xingao Mountain, and Dabajian Mountain, but also look at the standard angles of these famous mountains; Relatively little-known mountains, and the experimental perspective of "looking up from the bottom up". In terms of themes, this book not only presents relatively typical scenery such as the sea of clouds and the view from the top of the mountain, but also includes relatively rare images intended to depict the ecology of alpine plants, the daily life of the aborigines, and the process of mountaineering. As mentioned earlier, we were dazzled by the variety of this book, but also confused by its message. However, after some digging, we believe that such an unclassifiable feature is the biggest feature of this book. After all, "Taiwan Photo Grand View: Mountains" is a group of photography enthusiasts. After spending a lot of savings to buy a camera, they "shoot outside" with great enthusiasm. After commenting on each other's works, they made a commemorative album with endless enthusiasm To commemorate this period. This book will not be faced with a large number of people with vague faces; it is a handmade souvenir or fanzine, or a gift to maintain Taiwan's mountaineering community.
The name "Mountaineering Check-In A Hundred Years Ago" has another meaning. Why are modern people keen on punching cards? This may involve, in this ever-changing world, people still expect to leave auspicious pieces of feathers in some form, and even