Shomei Tomatsu’s Hikōki (Airplane): Rediscovery and Archival of the 16mm Film

This paper introduces the recent rediscovery of the valuable film Hikōki (Airplane), shot by Shomei Tomatsu (1930–2012), one of the leading photographers of postwar Japan. In addition to providing an overview of the work, it also offers a brief report on the process of its digitization and the current state of the archival activities conducted at the artist’s private studio, with which the author is directly involved.