An undisputed masterwork among Japanese photobooks, Eikoh Hosoe and Tatsumi Hijikata's Kamaitachi was originally released in 1969 as a limited edition of 1,000 copies. Hosoe, the renowned photographer, and Hijikata, the founder of ankoku butoh dance, had visited a farming village in northern Japan, where Hijikata improvised a performance inspired by the legend of a weasel-like demon named Kamaitachi. As Hosoe photographed Hijikata's spontaneous interactions with the landscape and with the people they encountered, the two artists together enacted an intense investigation of tradition and an exploration, both personal and symbolic, of contemporary convulsions in Japanese society. In 2005, Aperture published a limited-edition facsimile in homage to the original, in close consultation with the artist; now, they have made this enchanting body of work available in its first ever affordable trade edition, which was painstakingly reworked by renowned graphic artist Ikko Tanaka--the designer of the original volume--shortly before his death. His reinterpretation of this classic book object, which is truly a paragon of Japanese bookmaking, includes as a special bonus four never-before-published images from the classic Kamaitachi series.
Eikoh Hosoe was born in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan, in 1933. He is an integral part of the history of modern Japanese photography, and remains a driving force not only for his own work, but also for his efforts as a teacher and ambassador, fostering artistic exchange between Japan and the outside world. Hosoe lives in Tokyo and is represented by Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York.
Eikoh Hosoe's groundbreaking Kamaitachi was first published in 1969 in a limited edition of 1,000 copies. This exquisite volume has never before been available outside of Japan and has long been out of print. In homage to the creativity and craftsmanship of the original object, and in collaboration with the photographer, Aperture is delighted to re-create the unique artistry of this book. Each of the pages is printed as an individual gatefold, each of which opens to reveal a single, stunning black-and-white image. The exterior of each gatefold is printed in a spectacular azure blue. The effect of opening the book is of stepping into an unknown landscape of theater and baroque sensuality. Kamaitachi was originally published as a singular collaboration between photographer Eikoh Hosoe and the founder of Butoh dance, Tatsumi Hijikata. In 1965 Hosoe and Hijikata visited a small farming village in Tohoku, in northern Japan. Drawing in the villagers as performers and using the rice fields and rural landscape as a theatrical set for an improvisational Butoh performance, Hosoe photographed Hijikata's spontaneous interactions with the landscape and with the people they encountered.
Hosoe has called the project "a subjective documentary," an investigation of tradition and an exploration both personal and symbolic of the convulsions of Japanese society. It was inspired by the legend of the kamaitachi, a weasel-like demon who haunts the rice fields and slashes those who encounter him, as well as by the traditional dances of that region. "In what is called 'ethnic dance,'" wrote Hijikata, "we discover the truth that the more vulgar something is, the greater is the beauty expressed."
