Miyazaki Manabu: Kemonomichi (Animal Paths)

"Kemono-michi" (Animal Paths) is a photobook by photographer Manabu Miyazaki, compiled from about a year and a half of footage (starting in 1976) captured by automatic cameras installed in the mountains of the Central Alps in Nagano Prefecture, documenting the lives of wild animals.

Using unmanned cameras that eliminated any human presence, Miyazaki successfully followed "animal paths" from the mountaintop to the foothills, capturing the raw lives of animals as they appeared through the changing seasons. He painstakingly accumulated decisive moments that can only be obtained by patiently waiting for extended periods, confronting Japan's wild animals, which are highly cautious and difficult to encounter.

What appears in the photos is a series of lives, far from flashy, yet vibrantly alive. Forests covered in snow, the season of budding, the scent of damp earth—animals quietly and resiliently live within the rhythm of Japan's nature.

This book is not merely an animal photobook; it is an attempt to present the natural world disconnected from the human gaze, and a record that deeply questions the relationship between Japan's climate and its living creatures. It is a work that, alongside technological innovation in wildlife photography, reveals a world that can only be seen through "waiting."

[Title] Animal Paths
[Publisher] Kyoritsu Shuppan
[Publication Date] June 1, 1979 (First Edition)
[Page Count] Unpaginated
[Size] Approx. 217*305*15mm / 900g
[Format] Hardcover
[Language] Japanese
[Title Reading] KEMONOMICH
[Author/Editor] Manabu Miyazaki/Author
[Printing] Shin-Nippon Printing/Printed
[ISBN] 00728182401371
[Condition] Used 【6】Good to Average (Obi: torn in two at the spine, Cover: slight creasing at top)
[Accessories] Obi
[Featured In] -
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Manabu Miyazaki (born 1949)

Born in 1949 in the Ina Valley, Nagano Prefecture.
After working for a precision machinery company, he became a self-taught photographer, focusing his work on the relationship between nature and humans. He calls himself a "news photographer of the natural world" and continues to document the ecology of wild animals, primarily mammals and raptors.

Using unmanned automatic camera systems incorporating self-made infrared sensors and small strobes, he vividly visualizes the behaviors and lives of animals that are difficult for the human eye to capture. His representative works, "Kemono-michi" and "Fukurou" (Owls), meticulously recorded the behavior and communication of wild animals and received high acclaim.

In 1978, he received the Picture Book Japan Grand Prize for "Fukurou." In 1982, he received the Photographic Society of Japan Newcomer's Award for "Washi to Taka" (Eagles and Hawks). In 1990, he received the Domon Ken Award for "Fukurou." In 1995, he received the Photographic Society of Japan Annual Award and the Kodansha Publishing Culture Award for "Shi" (Death).

He held a solo exhibition "Manabu Miyazaki: Pencil of Nature" at the IZU PHOTO MUSEUM in 2013, participated in a group exhibition at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain (Paris) in 2016, and held a solo exhibition at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum in 2021, continuing to present his work both domestically and internationally.

He also addresses the relationship between modern society and nature by viewing changes in wildlife ecology due to forest development and environmental shifts from the perspective of "synanthropic animals" (human-dependent organisms), sounding an alarm. His stance of re-examining human society from an animal's perspective through photography has pioneered a unique field beyond the scope of documentary photography.

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Manabu Miyazaki, Tokumitsu Iwaago, Mitsuaki Iwaago, Ikuo Nakamura, Mitsuhiko Imamori