How do you select photographers for the Muryougazou Studio roster?

Submissions are reviewed by our nine in-house curators in Nakameguro, many of them former editors at Brutus, Popeye, and Casa Brutus. Only 6.4% of submissions are accepted; the rest are returned with notes. Acceptance is editorial, not algorithmic.

Can I license images shot by a specific photographer on this page?

Yes. Each photographer card links to their portfolio, where every image carries a price chip and a ライセンス button. Licenses issued on weekdays before 17:00 JST ship the same day, and every file is delivered in vertical, square, and 9:16 crops alongside the master file.

Do photographers retain copyright when their work is licensed through Muryougazou Studio?

Yes. Photographers retain copyright at all times; the license grants the buyer commercial use under the terms selected at checkout. Photographers receive an average of 52% of license revenue — more than double the 25% industry standard.

Roster · 320 contributors · Est. 2011

The 320 people
behind the 48,000 images.

A working roster of editors, art directors, and reportage photographers — curated in Nakameguro, shipped same-day before 17:00 JST.

Editor's note

Only 6.4% of submissions make it in — and the curators who decide used to run Brutus, Popeye, and Casa Brutus.

The photographer index on this page is not a database dump. Every name below survived a two-stage review by our in-house desk of nine curators — former magazine picture editors who return, with notes, the 93.6% of submissions we decline. What you are browsing is the result: a deliberately small library of camera-shot editorial work, cleared for commercial use, themed around the moments brands actually need to show.

— The Muryougazou editorial desk, Nakameguro

Quarterly champions

Four photographers our curators are championing this season.

A short rotation of the nine names on this season's print zine cover. Tap a plate to open the full portfolio and the 240-image collection it anchors.

¥18,000 ライセンス

Series 047 — After Hours, Tokyo

Ayako Mori

Former staff photographer, Brutus magazine. Long-form reportage on night-shift labour.

Tokyo·14 series·312 images

¥14,500 ライセンス

Series 092 — Craft, Kyoto

Kenji Hattori

Casa Brutus contributing editor. Quiet studies of pre-industrial workshops.

Kyoto·9 series·198 images

¥22,000 ライセンス

Series 138 — Soft Power

Ren Takahashi

Popeye alumni. Portraiture for cosmetics and lifestyle campaigns.

Tokyo·11 series·264 images

¥16,000 ライセンス

Series 201 — Tides, Fukuoka

Hiroto Nakashima

Independent reportage. Coastal labour, fishery, and salt-making.

Fukuoka·7 series·156 images

残り316名のポートフォリオを見る →

By the editors

A roster that spans Tokyo to Oaxaca — and pays its makers more than twice the industry standard.

Three hundred and twenty working photographers, across five Japanese cities and fourteen countries. The roster is intentionally small for a library this size — average portfolio is 240 images across eight themed sub-series, refreshed every fourteen days. We reject scale-by-spam: our acceptance rate is 6.4%, and our curators are working former editors, not algorithms.

What changes when a stock library treats photographers as authors rather than suppliers? The images get better. The rights clear faster. And the photographers stay. Our average payout to the contributor is 52% of license revenue — more than twice the 25% industry standard — which is why our top names have been with us for over a decade.

私たちのキュレーション philosophy を読む →

The roster in numbers

320 Active contributors across 5 Japanese cities and 14 countries
240 Avg. images per portfolio across 8 themed sub-series
52% Avg. payout to photographer 2× the 25% industry standard
17:00 Same-day license cut-off JST, weekdays — PDF invoice issued

Next step

Liked an eye? License the image in under 14 minutes.

Every plate in this library is cleared for commercial use via our in-house rights pipeline — average turnaround 14 minutes on weekdays. Browse a curated collection, or open a single-image license right now.

Native 1:1, vertical, and 9:16 crops on every master file
PDF invoices accepted by Japanese accounting teams
48-hour replacement guarantee on any rights dispute

ライセンスを購入する → サブスクリプション料金を見る

Same-day issuance on weekdays before 17:00 JST. Weekend and holiday requests processed the next business morning.