青幻舎 SEIGENSHA Art Publishing

With a history that can be traced back 140 years, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) has made immense contributions to Japanese industry and society through world-class research that spans seven diverse fields: energy and environment, life science and biotechnology, information technology and human factors, materials and chemistry, electronics and manufacturing, geological surveying, and metrology.

Yukikazu Ito first became acquainted with AIST in May 2019, when the scientific community officially revised the definition of the kilogram for the first time in 130 years, and he was commissioned to do a photo shoot for the historic occasion. Researchers were so impressed with his photographs—upon viewing them, they felt “liberated from preconceptions”—that he was subsequently given permission to shoot in areas of the site that are normally closed to the public. The resulting images, compiled in these pages, are a record of a three-year photographic inquiry into the act of seeing—a record captured in step with those pursuing scientific truth.

AIST projects and facilities covered
- National Metrology Institute of Japan: prototype kilogram, integrating sphere, optical tunnel
- Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology: ascidian genome sequencing
- Department of Energy and Environment: engine dynamometer control panel, methane hydrate, large space laboratory
- Department of Information Technology and Human Factors: HRP-5P humanoid robot 
- Geological Survey of Japan: geological sample preparation room, HASClay®
- Department of Materials and Chemistry: carbon nanotube
- Department of Electronics and Manufacturing: clean room

Yukikazu Ito was born in 1966 in Aichi Prefecture. After graduating from the Nihon University College of Art in photography in 1991, he began working at Hakuhodo Photo Creative (now Hakuhodo Products). In 2000, he established Ito Photo Office. From 2015 to 2019, he taught part-time in the Tama Art University Department of Integrated Design. In addition to his commercial photography, he has published photobooks including Iriguchi (Entry; Wall, 2003), Ame ga, asufaruto (Rain, Asphalt; Wall, 2009), Tetsuo (Nippon Camera, 2016), Under Glass (Ito Photo Office, 2016), and Light of the Ring (Seigensha, 2019).