IIJIMA-Ishou from Japan Exhibits over 400 Photographic

Works at NFT Market

On June 2, 2021, IIJIMA-Ishou, a design firm based in the hot-spring town of Yugawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, west of Tokyo, submitted more than 400 works, an unprecedented number for a Japanese photographer, to opensea.io, the world's largest NFT marketplace.

NFT is a "Non-Fungible Token" issued for digital art (video, images, music, etc.), game items, digital trading cards, etc. The word "token" originally means "evidence, souvenir, substitute money, voucher, or gift certificate," and in the IT field, it means "data or device that proves something."

At opensea.io, IIJIMA-Ishou deals in artwork, trading cards, game items, and more. For artwork alone, more than 1.47 million NFTs have already been issued (as of May 27, 2021), but there are few contemporary art photographs and even fewer works by Japanese photographers. In the huge market of opensea.io, 400 photo NFTs are extremely rare. Especially, IIJIMA-Ishou's NFTs, limited to one per photo, are very rare.

IIJIMA-Ishou currently offers more than 400 NFTs (as of June 2), ranging from high-quality film photographs taken since the 1990s to the latest digital photographs. The NFTs include not only "beautiful Japanese scenery" but also works that propose "daily life in modern Japan" and "life based on new values.”

https://opensea.io/collection/hinamameki

Photo1: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M106672/202105275478/_prw_PI1fl_06N8R5ez.png

Also available is a high-resolution black-and-white photograph (taken in 1999) of "Matsubara (pine forest) at Night" in Higashi-Matsushima City, Miyagi Prefecture, which was lost in the tsunami of the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011 (Equivalent to 60 million pixels in high resolution, 27 photos).

https://opensea.io/collection/yoge-no-matsubara1999

Photo2: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M106672/202105275478/_prw_PI2fl_zFTL48y7.png

IIJIMA-Ishou has also published a photo collage documenting the vibrancy of the city while respecting portrait rights (82 photos).

https://opensea.io/collection/people-s-daily-life-theme-tatazumai

Photo3: https://kyodonewsprwire.jp/prwfile/release/M106672/202105275478/_prw_PI3fl_BXj9W6t2.png

From the rural town of Yugawara in Kanagawa Prefecture, a small design firm has begun to present its work to the world. IIJIMA-Ishou is using opensea.io to open new doors in contemporary art photography.