KOUFUKURON - Eudaemonics by Taisuke Sato

Japanese society has a high suicide rate, with many overworked and exhausted people and single-person households. In recent years, laws regarding mental health have finally been established, but still many people are screaming in pain. While some people desire their own happiness and are in the midst of it, others only feel the emptiness of the word "happiness. " Others suffer from painful emotions such as loneliness, lack of love, loss, alienation, depression, and jealousy. When we are trapped in endless, barren emotions, our vision becomes narrowed. Without realizing it, they choke on themselves, always lamenting about their unhappiness, pushing people away, and letting the feeling of wanting to die take over their minds.

However, the world is a "representation" of what we see, and depending on what perspective and will we have, we can see the world differently. In order to make this possible, I take a social psychological approach to the events I see in my photographs, and find the relationship between them and society. The idea is to have a social point of view rather than a first person perspective. This means recognizing diversity, allowing people to be as they are, and feeling that everything in the world is fragile and beautiful. I believe that this "Acceptance of Impermanence" and a conscious shift in perspective to the Japanese aesthetic of "MONO-NO-AWARE" is the path to human happiness.





Taisuke Sato
Taisuke was born in Nagoya, Japan in 1969.
After graduating from the Department of Sociology at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan, he worked in housing sales and management for a major Japanese housing company. When he turned 50, he chose to spend his life exploring arts, photography and its philosophy, then turned to be a photographer.
He takes pictures in the style of street photography. They have some feelings, lonely, surreal, and humorous. He also has a unique sensitivity to the distance between society and people, and the perspective from which he views them. This is because when he was a boy, he moved every three years due to his father's job transfer.
As a result, he learned how to blend in quickly and get along with the existing community by observing closely and understanding the distance and atmosphere between people. This is because in Japan's collectivist and relationship-oriented society, it is difficult to join an existing group.
In addition, the fact that he himself is an existence that "Appears one day and disappears the next" has given him a subjective and objective perspective and thinking, but even so, in Japanese society dominated by the exclusivity of the community and "the Atmosphere of the place", his identity without a hometown or geographical ties is very uncertain and unstable.
For this reason, his works are photographed with a unique sensibility, and their atmosphere reflects his worldview.
His main theme is the relationship between himself, people, and society. In his work, he presents a methodology that takes a multifaceted view of human life and society and transforms it into a "Acceptance of impermanence".
And more, he has deep insights into social behavioral psychology, social science, mental health, social class, Japanese organizational philosophies, housing and family, which are largely reflected in his work.

Taisuke Sato's Website
Taisuke Sato' on Instagram