was an influential Japanese photographer. Kitazumi's work is characterized by manipulation of photographic process for aesthetic rather than representational or documentary effect. His pre-war work features the use of lith print process and solarization. Photograms feature frequently in his post-war work. Kitazumi is also noted for his pioneering work in the commercial use of color photographic processing and printing in Japan. Pre-war career Kitazumi was born on 1898 in Shizuoka. He went to Keio school of commerce () but dropped out. In 1920, Kitazumi was given a job as a temporary photographic assistant for Toshimo Mitsumura at the newly established Mitsumura Printing Company in Shibuya Kamihara-chō, Tokyo. In his memoirs, he wrote that his ambition during this period was to become a painter and that he was not interested in long-term employment at Mitsumura. Toshimo Mitsumura was one of the early pioneers of photography in Japan and had a relationship with the Army and Naval Ministries dating back to the Russo-Japanese War. Kitazumi was to continue working for Mitsumura until 1945. Kitazumi's early photographic assignments included the trips to Karafuto (Sakhalin) and Mount Kumgang (now in North Korea). No photographs from these assignments have been identified, however. In 1927, he was given an assignment to cover the Emperor's visit to the Ogasawara islands. Twenty-eight frames from this assignment were featured in the magazine Kaigun (Navy), published by Mitsumura Printing in September 1927. Two of the frames featured were hand-colored. Although the magazine frequently featured hand-colored prints, this is the first known instance in which color was used in Kitazumi's photographs. In 1932, Kitazumi took a series of portraits depicting the "Noh" actor, Kanze Sakon 24th () in his various stage costumes. Each portrait was composed from up to eight frames to create hand-colored plates for a four-color separation process with additional masking templates prepared to apply gold and silver details. This was published in 20 volumes containing 60 portraits over a period of two years as Noh Sugata (). In 1939, Mitsumura imported a Bermpohl Naturfarbenkamera (tricolor camera) from Germany and Kitazumi was given the task of exploring its use as a part of the color printing process. In the years leading up to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, Mitsumura imported two additional tricolor cameras, National Photocolor Lerochrome and Devin Tricolor, from the US. These cameras were used by Mitsumura to develop a photographic printing process which they named the