AOYAGI KENJI

Born in Yamagata prefecture, Japan in 1958, AOYAGI KENJI grew up in Kahoku Town, north-west of Yamagata City. He studied mechanical engineering at Yamagata University. When he was the fourth-year student, had a year leave of absence from university, traveled Europe for eight months. He discovered photography then. After graduating from university he began to study photography by himself. Over a period of ten years, he repeatedly visited the mountains of China's Yunnan Province to photograph the Mekong River and the ethnic minorities indigenous to the area. Over a period of five years, he visited the other Southeast Asian countries through which the Mekong flows to complete his photographic record of the river, its banks. His photographs and articles have been published in various Japanese newspapers and magazines. His photograph books and CD-ROM about Mekong River have been published in Japan and USA in1995. His work has also been exhibited in Japan. His theme of photograph is "Asian Rice Terrace and Culture" after "the Mekong". He visited Yunnan, Guizhou,Guangxi province,China. And Philippines,Indonesia,Vietnam,Korea,Thailand and so on.Finally, he visited more than 134 rice terraces in Japan. His book "One Hundred Japanese Rice Terrace"has been published in Japan in 2002.His work about "Asian Rice Terrace"has also been exhibited. His new book"Ajia no Tanada, Nihon no Tanada"(means " Asian rice terrace") is published in Japan in 2004.His work has been exhibited again.

---

yunnan