Kamaitachi (Signed with shipping box)

Eikoh Hosoe
Kamaitachi (Signed with shipping box)

Photographs: Eikoh Hosoe

Text: Shuzo Takiguchi & Toyoichiro Miyoshi

Publisher: Seigen sha

132 pages

Year: 2005

Comments: Hardcover in a cardboard slipcase with shipping box, 385 x 315 mm. Each large image concealed within a blue gatefold that must be carefully opened before viewing. Reprint, 2005. Signed and numbered edition of 500 copies (published simultaneously by Aperture in an English edition of 500). One page was lightly folded, so the mark is slightly visible; otherwise in excellent condition.

A collaboration with Tatsumi Hijikata, the founder of ankoku butoh dance, it documents their visit to a farming village in northern Japan and an improvisational performance made with local villagers, inspired by the legend of kamaitachi, a weasel-like demon who haunts rice fields and slashes people with a sickle. Hosoe photographed Hijikata's spontaneous interactions with the landscape and the people they encountered. A seductive combination of performance and photography, the two artists enact a personal and symbolic investigation of Japanese society during a time of massive upheaval.