Namahage

• Photographer
  Satoshi Takahashi
• Agency / Studio
  Freelance Photojournalist
• Prize
  Honorable Mention in People / Culture
• Socials
• Website
  https://www.satoshitakahashi.info/

Japanese traditional visiting deity "Namahage" march through the streets during the "Oga no Namahage" in a blizzard in Oga City, Akita Prefecture, Japan on December 31,2021. This folk-cultural event has a long history of over several hundred years. Each New Year’s Eve, men from each village dressed as Namahage deities visit homes in the district to admonish laziness, also to bring happiness, rich harvests and products from the mountains and oceans for the coming year. In 2018, Oga no Namahage was designated as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage.

• Biography
  Satoshi Takahashi is a Japanese photojournalist. He started his professional career in Cambodia in 2007. He had spent 11 years in the country covering social issues. Currently, he has been focusing on documenting stories of vanishing cultures in Japan concurrently with covering Cambodia. In 2019, he was awarded the Domon Ken Award for his photobook RESISTANCE, which compiles work shot in Cambodia between 2013 and 2018. This is one of Japan's most prestigious awards for documentary photography, and the book has been added to the permanent collection of the Ken Domon Museum of Photography.