Born 1938 in Ibaraki. Graduated from Rikkyo University College of Economics in 1955. He joined Shinchosha, where he has been in charge of centerfolds and other photographs for Shukan Shincho since the weekly magazine’s inauguration. He went freelance in ’59, and became involved with the fanzine VIVO until 1961. Since the publication in 1965 of Chizu (The Map), a collection of photographs contemplating the recovery and war memories of postwar Japan, he has continuously been attracting attention in Japan and around the world.
Photo books include Chizu (’65), Nude (’84), The Globe Theater (’98) and Theatrum Mundi (’03). Main exhibitions include “Last Cosmology” (’95), “Eureka” (’01), “Kikuchi Kawada: The Globe Theater” (’03), and the group shows “New Japanese Photography” (‘74), “Japon des Avant-Gardes 1910-1970” (’86), and “The History of Japanese Photography” (’03).