Takashi Amano, photographer, designer, aquarist and founder of ADA, Aqua Design Amano, died from pneumonia yesterday, 4th of August.
The news is bouncing around every social network, twitter, facebook, or forum about the hobby. Unfortunately we can confirm the sad news of his death, caused by pneumonia at the age of 61. It seems that the pneumonia was a complication arisen from cancer.
It is difficult to describe Takashi Amano in a few words, especially by who, like me, is mainly a marine hobbyist. It is undeniable that he was one of the most influential aquarists in history. He started as a nature photographer, approached the freshwater aquariums hobby and became the inventor of the Zen genre applied to aquariums: using the Japanese gardens technics with Zen rocks and Wabi-Sabi concept his aquariums displayed a previously unseen harmony, they disrupted the past concepts of aquariums, which focused mainly on community tanks up the the Dutch aquariums level.
His main purpose was to represent nature in the most genuine way possible. In his compositions, he used Glossostigma elastinoides and Riccia fluitans and small shrimps to deal with algae. One of these shrimp species, Caridina multidentata (also known as Caridina japonica), has been named “Amano shrimp” or “Yamato shrimp” in his honor.
He founded ADA, Aqua Design Amano, in 1982, in order to bring plants, rocks and various equipment to the hobbyist based on his philosophy.
He published several books among which we remember Nature Aquarium book 1, Nature Aquarium Book 2, and Nature Aquarium Complete Book, all photographic books focused on his Natural Aquarium concept, translated and published in seven languages.
Two of his stunning pictures have been exposed during the Hokkaido 34th G8 in 2008.
Below, the Japanese article about his death from pneumonia.
Finally, we would like to commemorate him with a video
