1941 (Japanese: 渡辺克巳), is a Japanese photographer born in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture. While still in high school he worked as an assistant at the Morioka branch of the Mainichi newspapers, where he first became involved with photography. After graduating he joined Japan National Railways and moved to Tokyo in 1961.

From 1965 he worked as a street portrait photographer in Shinjuku, producing small sets of posed photographs for a fixed fee. His practice focused on the nightlife of Kabukichō, where he photographed customers and workers in bars, cabarets, and clubs. In 1973 his series Shinjuku Kabukichō was published in Camera Mainichi, receiving the magazine’s Album Award, and in the same year he released the photobook Shinjuku Gunbutsu Den.

The photobook is central to his work, with later publications including Hot Dog; Shinjuku 1999–2000 (2001), Shinjuku, India, Shinjuku (2011), and Story of the Shinjuku Thieves (2013). These books compile portrait series made over decades and document the people and subcultures of Shinjuku.

Reference
shashasha, artist profile.
https://www.shashasha.co/en/artist/katumi-watanabe