Born in Niigata, Japan, Kajii currently lives and works as a artist and Buddhist monk on Sado Island.
Syion Kajii, graduated from Koyasan University in Mikkyo, in esoteric Buddhism, in 1999. He has been taking photographs since the age of 16, and after having served his Buddhist apprenticeship at Koyasan (Mt. Koya) from 1995 to 1999, Kajii travelled around the world, to places such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, and the U.K. taking pictures. While working as a monk of the Singon sect in Sado Island, he has been actively working as a photographer. In 2004 he was awarded the 1st FOIL Award for his series of pictures in which he took a succession of waves on a shore in Sado. Following the FOIL Award, he published his first photo book NAMI and was awarded the Rookie of the Year 2005 by The Photographic Society of Japan for this overwhelmingly energetic and spiritual book. Another of his projects consists of photographing rural places suffering from serious depopulation, which was published as Marginal Village in 2009, for which he was awarded The Gotoh Memorial Foundation prize. In 2010 Kajii published his second book KAWA (river) showing breathtaking images of rivers from his extensive travels around the world. His newest work TSUKI (moon/month), was produced in 2011, concurrently with his homonymous video work for the exhibition “Mysticism – Longing for the Absolute” at the Museum Rietberg.
Education
1999
BA Mikkyo (Esoteric Buddhism), Koyasan University, Koyasan, Japan
Solo Exhibitions
2012
Water and Land, Niigita Art Festival (Japan)
HARBIN 2009-2012
Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama (Japan)
FOIL Gallery, Tokyo (Japan)
2011
Tsuki
Christophe Guye Galerie at Ditting Raum Zurich (Switzerland)
2009
Shikamura
Tohoku University of Art and Design, Yamagata (Japan)
2008
NAMI
Niitsu Art Forum, Niigata (Japan)
Marginal Village
FOIL GALLERY, Tokyo (Japan)
2006
NAMI
epSITE, Tokyo (Japan)
2005
NAMI
The Art & Natural History Museum of SADO, Niigata (Japan)
2004
1st FOIL Award winners exhibition
"NAMI" Little More Gallery, Tokyo (Japan)
Selected Group Exhibitions
2012
ACQUA, Paris photo, Paris (France)
2011
Mysticism – The Longing for the Absolute
Museum Rietberg, Zurich (Switzerland)
2010
Inaugural Exhibition
Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich (Switzerland)
2008
Water in Photography
Huis Marseille stichting voor fotografie, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
Oasis
Gana Art Busan, Busan (South Korea)
2007
Spitting image
V1 Gallery, Copenhagen (Denmark)
FOIL vol.1Co-exist
FOIL Gallery, Tokyo (Japan)
"Views of Water: From Monet and Taikan to the Present"
Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama (Japan)
2006
Whisper Not!
Huis Marseille stichting voor fotografie, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
Whisper not!
Huis Mareille, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
2005
Landscape
Gana Art Center, Seoul (South Korea)
The month of Photography, Tokyo (Japan)
Fuji Photo Salon, Tokyo (Japan)
Publications
2012
HARBIN 2009-2012
Foil Gallery
2010
KAWA
Foil Gallery
2008
Marginal Village
Foil Gallery
2005
The Photographic Society of Japan
The Rookie of the Year Award
2004
NAMI
Little More
Awards
2009
20th the Rookie of the Year by Gotoh Memorial Foundation
2005
The Photographic Society of Japan, the Rookie of the Year award
2004
1st FOIL Award
Collections
Huis Marseille, Amsterdam
