Kamaitachi : Eikoh Hosoe
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Bibliographic Information
Kamaitachi : Eikoh Hosoe
Aperture, c2005
- Other Title
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鎌鼬 : 細江英公写真集
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Note
Limited to 500 numbered copies signed by the photographer
In a clamshell box
Description and Table of Contents
Description
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."
by "Nielsen BookData"