Mischa is a street/documentary photographer based in Tokyo who also works as a brand designer and Russia specialist. He was born into the Hiranos, a branch of the Kiyohara clan, a family line boasting 1,300 years of history and often described as a "microcosm of Japanese history."

 

Beginning with the highest nobility descended from Emperor Tenmu, this lineage has produced figures emblematic of their eras: the Heian period poets Kiyohara no Fukayabu and Sei Shōnagon; the Confucian scholar Kiyohara no Nobukane; an ancestor of the 79th Prime Minister of Japan; and Maria Kiyohara, who baptized Gracia Hosokawa. This bloodline continues to thrive even today. His grandfather was an award-winning artist who received the Prime Minister's Award, and his aunt, Mayumi Hattori, was a copperplate printmaker, a recipient of the Yokomizo Seishi Award, and a nominee for the Naoki Prize. Influenced by his mother, a fine arts graduate, Mischa himself showed early promise as a painter, winning an honorable mention in an international competition at the age of 11. However, contrary to expectations, he never developed a personal interest in pursuing painting.

 

A turning point came during high school when he met a former Soviet politician. Resolving to go to Russia, he encountered a Japanese photographer during his university life in Moscow and discovered street photography. Wandering through post-Soviet Moscow with a $70 compact camera, he captured the lives of its people on film—an experience that became the foundation of his artistic expression.

After returning to Japan, he picked up a camera again, and his work began to gain recognition through photo contest awards and use in book designs and media. Having grown up in a city known for the traditional Awa Odori dance festival, he continued to photograph the event as a long-term project. After winning a contest, he became the official photographer for several related associations, broadening the scope of his activities.

 

Since 2024, he has returned to Moscow to resume shooting. At a time when Japan-Russia relations are deeply strained, he continues to document his original "city of art"—as the Japanese person who knows Moscow best.

 

His style, shaped by the influence of Russian art, is both classical and sharp, grounded in his personal philosophy: "Photography is a method of painting, a medium that reflects the artist’s heart through light, shadow, and color." Like literature weaving stories with words, his lens vividly captures the beauty and sorrow of life.