Kamaitachi is the result of an experimental collaboration between photographer Eikoh Hosoe and avant-garde ankoku butō dancer Tatsumi Hijikata. In 1959 Hosoe attended Hijikata’s legendary performance Kinjiki (Forbidden Colours, a homage to Yukio Mishima’s novel of the same name) and adopted Hijikata as his muse soon after. For this extended performative portrait series, Hosoe invited Hijikata to return to his remote hometown in the north of Japan. Drawing upon the wild folkloric imagery which played such an important role in Hijikata’s memories of growing up in Tōhoku, the dancer assumed the persona of a local demon known as the ‘kamaitachi,’ to dance through the landscape of his youth for Hosoe’s camera.
Featured in Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook, vol. I, (London: Phaidon, 2004) p. 284-285.
First edition linen-bound hardcover in a cardboard slipcase, comprising 33 black and white photographs concealed within individual blue gatefolds. Signed in black ink with artist's stamp in red ink on inside leaf. Includes texts by Shūzō Takiguchi and Toyoichirō Miyoshi, with design by Ikko Tanaka. Published in a limited edition of 1000 numbered copies. 38.3 x 31.2 cm.
