"My entire family, whose image I see inverted on the ground glass, will one day die. This camera, which reflects and freezes their images, is in fact a device for archiving death." —Masahisa Fukase
 
For three generations, the Fukase family ran a photographic studio in Bifuka, a small town in Hokkaido, northern Japan. In August 1971, aged 35, Masahisa Fukase returned home from Tokyo, where he had moved in the 1950s. He realised that the Fukase photographic studio, run by his younger brother, and the growing family provided the perfect subject for a portrait series. Between 1971 and 1989 he returned regularly, using the family studio, its large-format Anthony camera and the changing family cast as the basis for the series. True to form, Fukase often introduced outside models and humorous elements, juxtaposing them with the inescapable reality of passing time and a dwindling family group. He continued after his father's death in 1987 until the studio's closure through bankruptcy in 1989 and the family's subsequent dispersal.
 
Family (Kazoku), published in 1991, was Fukase's last book. It opens with a photograph of the family studio, followed by 31 studio family portraits arranged chronologically. The book includes an extensive text by Fukase himself and a contemporary essay by Tomo Kosuga.