Early Summer Nerves (Japanese: 初夏神経) by Kiyoshi Koishi embodies the experimental fervor of Japan's New Photography movement in the early 1930s. Published in 1933 as a book, the series features ten images paired with short poems, forming a seamless blend of visual and literary expression that encapsulates the avant-garde spirit of the era. Koishi, a leading member of the Naniwa Photography Club, created this project during a pivotal period in Japanese art, when the nation was experiencing rapid modernization alongside the global rise of surrealism and abstract art.
Early Summer Nerves situates itself at the intersection of modernist and surrealist aesthetics, exploring the tensions between nature and industrialization, tradition and innovation. Koishi’s fascination with the transformative potential of photography drives the project, challenging the dominance of pictorialism and realism in Japanese photography. Thematically, the work delves into the fragmented experience of modernity, juxtaposing fluid natural elements such as water and light with the rigidity of steel and other industrial materials.
Visually, Early Summer Nerves is characterized by its abstract compositions, innovative use of light and shadow, and the application of experimental techniques. Koishi’s mastery of photomontage and photograms results in layered, dreamlike images that blur the boundaries between reality and imagination. High-contrast exposures heighten the dramatic interplay of textures, while multi-exposure methods create surreal distortions that reflect his avant-garde vision. These techniques, inspired by European modernists such as Man Ray and László Moholy-Nagy, are adapted here to a uniquely Japanese context, capturing a distinctly local sensibility within a global artistic dialogue.
On release, Early Summer Nerves drew divided responses—praised in Kansai circles for technical innovation and criticized in Tokyo for its abstraction—yet it soon became a reference point for Japan’s New Photography. Its afterlife has been shaped by key presentations and reissues, including the 1932 Namiten showing, holdings in major collections, and faithful facsimiles (Nazraeli Press and Kokusho Kankokai, both 2005). Today it is commonly cited in photobook histories for advancing photomontage and photogram practice in a distinctly Japanese idiom.
