Ueda Shoji (1913-2001), a modernist photographer, way ahead of his times in Japan, is noted for his sense of play and jousts with Surrealism. He was born and lived most of his life far to the west of Tokyo in the seaside village of Yonago in Tottori prefecture. A member of the amateur club Yonago Shayu Kai from 1931, he opened a portrait studio in Tottori in 1932 and helped establish several photography groups by 1947. Ueda mainly photographed around his home town, especially at the Tottori Dunes where he took his best-known series of playful and meticulously arranged family portraits and humorous still lifes. Numerous volumes of his work have appeared in Japan and he has received many Japanese and foreign awards. The Shoji Ueda Museum of Photography, devoted to his work, opened in 1995.