“My first encounter with Shimizu Isamu occurred when I noticed a photo of his face in the show window of a cabaret in Shimbashi, where he was part of the current programme. That was fifty years ago.

At the time, Camera Mainichi, a magazine published by the Mainichi Newspapers, was occasionally running my work in what the editor in charge called an entertainers' series. After having shot showpeople at the Mokubakan in Asakusa, the enka singer Saburo Kitajima on the road, and the Toei yakuza film studios for example, my encounter with that one captivating picture of Mr Shimizu's smiling face came just in time, when I was looking for my next subject. It was a crucial encounter, as I decided right on the spot that this was the next person I was going to photograph.

It still happens today that I fondly recall the time I spent with Mr Shimizu during the shootings. In such moments I see him and myself, two young dudes in conversation, just as if that gap of fifty years wasn't there at all.”