Life is like batter’s box, says 76-year-old baseball photographer

By Aki Ishima / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer CHIBA

A scratched ball left in the grass, diaries piled up in a clubroom. These and other images were captured by Chizuko Sakamaki, 76, who recently won the 21st Sakata city Domon Ken cultural award for an outstanding amateur photographer with her “Foul Ball” compilation of 30 photos.

When Sakamaki turned 50, she began to attend a neighborhood association’s photography club, intending to pursue it as a hobby during her old age.

Shortly before her 60th birthday, she happened to see a baseball game at a stadium. Crying, smiling and yelling, the high school players moved Sakamaki.

“It doesn’t matter whether a player can play well. Every player has a drama,” she says, and that is what she always focuses on when she takes a picture. Sakamaki often goes to see the games and practices of baseball clubs with her husband, who is also a fan of high school baseball.

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