Gin Satoh: Chaos captured through the camera - The underground punk scene of Japan.
In pursuit of explosive bass, screeching amplified sounds and sensory remission, punk lover Gin Satoh is a photographer that magically captured the secret Japanese punk scene throughout the late 1970s and ’80s.
Japan is famed for its wild and wacky subcultures, and although America and the UK were and are still at the centre of punk culture, the migration overseas gave the youth of Japan sonic weaponry to rage against the economical and societal demands that pressured them in the late 1970s.
By utilising modified commercial technology a new genre was born called ‘Noise’, or ‘Japanoise’ named by westerners. Projecting visceral attitude and emotion, the ‘Noise’ genre accumulated a cult-like following. Satoh would become the go-to photographer that captured and documented the hysteria and euphoria of this new chaotic breed of music.
Born in Sendai, but based now in Tokyo, Satoh used black and white imagery to capture the raw, concrete, and violent nature of the genre, whilst also showcasing the passion behind the movement. From 1978 to 1986, Satoh was sucked into the vortex of eccentric personalities and spent thousands of hours capturing the scene. His images would be showcased in ‘Takarajima’, a popular youth magazine that helped tell the story of Japan’s underground music scene.
Satoh would grow to love and become a symbiote of the evolving Japanese noise scene through friends. He mentions that he was drawn in by the psychedelic sounds and lyrics of his friend’s band, Hadaka No Rallizes (Les Rallizes Dénudés), who would go on to become cult psychedelic favourites.
Throughout his career, Satoh would picture some of the most ear-ringing concerts the metropolis of Japan would host, including the historical moment when a member of the band ‘Hanatarash’ destroyed an entire venue by driving a bulldozer right through it. Messy, freaky, and explosive, the noise scene was the epicentre for rebelling and through the movement gave birth to musicians that expressed their individuality in the form of big hair, dark makeup and provocative lyrics.
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