Temple of Speed - exhibition at the Jim Clark Motorsport Museum

Scottish racing legend Jim Clark - captured by Joe Honda - was also known as the ‘Flying Scotsman.’

The photography of Joe Honda (Nobuyuki Jozuka), Asia’s ‘father’ of motorsport photography, brings to life the behind the scenes at the inaugural Indy 200 exhibition race at the Fuji Speedway International circuit in October 1966.  

Joe Honda had always been fascinated by speed and the Indy style race was an opportunity to get close to the reality of motor racing. We go from behind the scenes at a race briefing, visiting the pits with mechanics working on the cars, shots from the race to its conclusion capturing Jackie Stewart with the winners trophy.

The Jim Clark Motorsport Museum is located in Duns, a town in the Scottish Borders, Scotland.

Although he did not take part in the end Jim Clark dominates the event in Joe Honda’s lens. Jim Clark and Lotus were the reigning Formula One world champions. Jim is seen talking with fellow drivers and mechanics, and also his team owner and friend Colin Chapman. It also inspired Joe Honda to move to Europe in 1967 where he started a lifetime covering motorsport across the world, the first photographer from Asia to do so. Emiko Jozuka, Joe’s daughter said “I’m genuinely grateful to the Jim Clark Motorsport Museum for the opportunity to share these historical and rare images with a broader public.”

Organisation: The Jim Clark Motorsport Museum, the Jim Clark Trust, Live Borders and the Joe Honda Archive
Support: The Japan Society of Scotland, the Consulate General of Japan in Edinburgh and Shashin Kosha 
More information on the Japan Consulate’s speech can be found here. The exhibition page can be found on Live Border’s website.
Exhibition dates: March to November, 2024
Location: The Jim Clark Motorsport Museum, Duns, Scotland
Press coverage via CNN: Japan’s Indy 200: Remembering the first time IndyCars raced at Fuji Speedway

Special exhibition: Joe Honda | 24 Heures du Mans: To the Limit — and Beyond (June 8 to 22, 2023 & June 9 to July 9, 2023)

24 Heures du Mans: To the Limit - and Beyond (1967 - 1971) by Joe Honda brings to life the people, marques and memories that have shaped one of the most iconic endurance races in the world as it marks its centenary. 

Established in 1923 as a "Grand Prix of Endurance and Efficiency", Le Mans allowed car manufacturers to prove the durability of their machines in competition. The endurance race – famous for its legacy of brutally testing drivers and their teams – has one condition for victory: the car that covers the greatest distance in 24 hours is the winner.

An exhibition of Joe Honda's photographs – held in parallel at the Maison Franco-Japonaise and Fuji Motorsports Museum – reflects back on the "golden age" of Le Mans, marked by the final years of the dramatic Ford-Ferrari duel, until the Porsche's new contender, the 917, arrived on the scene. 

By transporting the viewer back to these years when Europe faced off against America, Honda's photography commemorates some of the people and technology that played a crucial role in shaping the course of today's global automotive industry.

Joe Honda, born in 1939 in Tokyo, is known as Asia's father of motorsport photography. In 1967, he traveled to Europe to document the global motorsport scene and became the first Asian regional representative of the International Racing Press Association (IRPA). Inspired by a diverse range of art forms, his images – captured over close to five decades – range from the visceral to the purely functional, immortalizing the raw experiences, developments and memories of the international world of motorsport through one artist's perspective.

Organization: FRIJ-MFJ
Co-organization: Fuji Motorsports Museum
Support: French Embassy in Japan, Shashin Kosha 
For more information: https://www.mfj.gr.jp/agenda/2023/06/08/2023-06-08_exposition_24heures/

June 8 to 22, 2023 | Monday to Sunday from 10h00 to 18h00 at Maison Franco-Japonaise, Ebisu, Tokyo

June 9 to July 9, 2023 | Monday to Sunday at Fuji Motorsports Museum, Shizuoka

Joe Honda’s work on the 24 Heures du Mans on display in the exhibition space of the La Maison Franco-Japonaise, a cultural research institute in Tokyo, Japan.