young, these older photographers recognized his developing talent. The magazine included some of his work. Other members included Hiromu Hara, Hikaru Yamanouchi, Koji Nishikigori, Tomizo Yoshikawa, and critics such as Takoho Tagaki, Nyozenkan Hasegawa, and Muneyoshi Yanagi. At these meetings, 20 or so photographers would come together and share photos. The participants would often have intense debates about the modernity of their photographs. As the youngest regular member of the group, the lively egalitarian environment of open discussions heavily influenced him. There was an incident that was indicative of that egalitarian spirit. A photo of a puppet lying on a table that Otsuka took sparked a fierce debate between Kimura Ihee and Nobuo Ina. Ihee said that the photograph was blurry and reprimanded Otsuka for presenting such a photo to the group. Ina defended Otsuka's photo saying that the blurriness was the photograph's tone. The debate did not abate until days later, and Kimura apologized to Otsuka's father, Masayoshi, for criticizing Otsuka's photograph. Otsuka said about these meetings: “Everyone was in earnest, and said exactly what they felt. Seniority counted for nothing. At that time, a student like myself would normally have been expected to remain silent in such company, but no one there ignored me, and I could speak out whenever I wanted to. There was never any master/pupil kind of atmosphere, no condescension – which is how it should be, since a good photo is a good photo no matter who took it.” Although many of these members diverged stylistically from each other in the future, the Koga meetings were essential to modern Japanese photography. The experience profoundly influenced him as a photographer and the various styles and techniques he employed throughout his long career. Early career Although Otsuka had been promised employment at the Asahi newspaper upon graduation, the newspaper told him that he would have to wait and that he would have to find a temporary job. He decided to create a small photography studio named Ginza Commercial Photography Research Center with his friends, including Ryukichi Shibuya. It was there that they developed a technique for making life-size prints of human models for department store advertisements, as mannequins were not yet widely used at the time. Ostuka struck gold as he became flooded with orders from various department stores; he became so busy that he had to hire students from Ueno Art College to help him.