For some, just the idea of being cramped under the same roof as our siblings and parents can be claustrophobic and frustrating.
But for Japanese photographer Masaki Yamamoto, that may have seemed a spacious, freeing experience.
Yamamoto grew up in Kobe, Japan, where he, his four siblings, mother and father, lived in a one room apartment about 7.5 square meters big for 18 years.
The family slept next to each other every night, surrounded by their belongings. The photographer told the New Yorker the bathtub was the bastion of privacy in the household – and nowhere else was safe from prying eyes or interruption.
While these living conditions would drive some families to drink, Yamamoto has shared an intimate selection of photographs that show his happy and close family in the surrounds of their tiny home.
Yamamoto does not hide the bad parts of his upbringing. When he was eight years old, before the one-room apartment, the family were evicted from their apartment in Kobe.
The seven of them lived out of a car before he and his siblings went to a children home for a period of time while their parents got back on their feet.
The images, taken between 2014 and 2017, are from his new book, titled Guts, and provide an insight into the good and bad of living on top of the ones you love.
Masaki Yamamoto, his four siblings and his parents lived in a one-room apartment in Kobe, Japan, for 18 years

His parents and all five children slept close together, surrounded by each other’s limbs and an increasing pile of belongings and junk (pictured is Yamamoto’s mother and one of her sons)

Despite the close quarters, the Yamamoto family made the most of what they had, remembering when times were worse and all seven of them were living in a car

Yamamoto says most of their furniture was found on the streets, but before that his father fashioned cupboards from cardboard boxes


Like most families, Yamamoto’s found pleasure and joy in eating. Left, the photographer’s mother is seen licking sticky rice off her fingers. Right, his younger brother eats slowly before leaving for night high school

Yamamoto’s brother once caught a yellowtail fish and brought it home for the family to eat

Yamamoto’s sister is seen eating ramen straight from the pot in one picture taken inside the tiny family home

Yamamoto’s mother, who works as a supermarket cashier, is seen taking a photograph of her eye after surgery


Although his sister looks forlorn, Yamamoto says she was kidding around at the time, propping her knees up to give the appearance of a generous chest. On the right, his father is seen shaving his head in the family kitchen

The dinner table inside the Yamamoto apartment is littered with a mirror, documents and a television remote

Despite their unique struggles, Yamamoto says his family argued like any other. Here, the pair are seen fighting over who will cut the cake, as dirty bowls and an ashtray surround them

Yamamoto’s parents knew money was tight, but appeared to have found a way to solve disputes without roaring arguments. They are seen here using a game of scissors paper rock to decide who will get to use the money

Yamamoto says this photo represents his family the most. He says Guts is not just about toughness, but about the intertwining nature of guts themselves. ‘When we were driven out of our previous apartment, when we had to live in the car, when we spent weekends with our parents during our stay in a children’s institution, or during the eighteen years spent in this apartment of one piece. We spent our lives like that,’ he told Slate. ‘I feel that this photo represents the origin of my photography – I left that and I will always come back to it.’