Kiyoji Ōtsuji (大辻 清司, Ōtsuji Kiyoji, b. Tokyo, 1923–2001) was a Japanese photographer active in the avant-garde art world in Japan after World War II. He created his own experimental and sculptural photographs and took widely circulated documentary photographs of other artists and art projects. He was deeply inspired by the photography criticism of Shūzō Takiguchi and Abe Nobuya and went on to become an authority on photography as well, extensively publishing texts—both criticism and theory—that have widely influenced later generations.
Ōtsuji graduated from the Tokyo Professional School of Photography in 1944. At the beginning of his photography career, Ōtsuji worked mostly in the field of commercial photography, creating studio work and magazine photographs. He first worked as a photographer at Takabayashi Studio run by Takafusa and Yasushi Takabayashi, before meeting Yoshishige Saitō in 1947 and joining the magazine Katei Bunka (Home Culture), where he worked for one year. Ōtsuji opened his own photography studio in Sendagaya, Tokyo, in 1947. In 1953, together with Kosaku Ito and Hamao Hamada, Ōtsuji founded the photography and design studio Graphic Group. Thereafter, he participated in the interdisciplinary avant-garde art collective Jikken Kōbō (Experimental Workshop), which brought together young musicians and artists under the mentorship of Takiguchi.
Ōtsuji also left behind a significant legacy as a teacher: from 1960, he taught at Kuwasawa Design School, Tokyo Zōkei University, University of Tsukuba, and Kyushu Sangyō University, among other places. His students include Tokuko Ushioda, Yutaka Takanashi, Shinzō Shimao, Shigeo Gochō and Naoya Hatakeyama. Among Otsuji’s main exhibits include Kiyoji Ōtsuji Exhibition at Tokyo Gallery (1987), Kiyoji Ōtsuji Retrospective – Experimental Workshop of Photography at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (1999), and Kiyoji Ōtsuji: Encounter and Collaboration at The Shōtō Museum of Art, Tokyo (2007). Ōtsuji’s photographic archives are held by the Musashino Art University Museum & Library. Prints of his photographs are also held in the institutional collections such as the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; the Tate Modern, London; the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; and M+, Hong Kong. He received The Photographic Society of Japan Distinguished Contributions Award in 1996.