Eikoh Hosoe

Hosoe was born on 18 March 1933 in Yonezawa, Yamagata, one of three sons of Yonejiro and Mitsu Hosoe. At birth Hosoe's name was "Toshihiro" (敏廣); he adopted the name "Eikoh" after World War II to symbolize a new Japan. He witnessed the firebombing of Tokyo in 1944 and his family was subsequently evacuated to his mother's village. He returned to Tokyo where he was primarily raised. He is the older brother of the designer Isao Hosoe. In high school he was a member of the photography club and the English-Language club. The Jazz Film Laboratory was a multidisciplinary artistic project aimed at producing highly expressive and intense works such as Hosoe's 1960 short black and white film Navel and A-Bomb (Heso to genbaku). Other notable artistic affiliations of the time include Daido Moriyama, who worked as Hosoe's assistant in 1961. from an adrenal gland tumor. == Relationship with Hijikata ==

Hosoe first met Tatsumi Hijikata in 1958 when the latter's company performed an interpretation of Yukio Mishima's novel Kinjiki (Forbidden Colors), about secret homosexual desire. Munroe describes the kamaitachi as "a small invisible animal that was believed to attack people in the rice paddies at night. When it struck, a person would find his limbs and flesh sliced as if by a flying blade, but strangely, the wounds were bloodless." In the photographs, Hijikata is seen wandering ghost-like within the stark landscape, confronting farmers and children. In 1968 Tadanori Yokoo designed the poster for Kamaitachi, which was both an exhibition and published in book form. Kamaitachi was also included a danced component choreographed and performed by Hijikata at Nikon Salon in Tokyo for the photographic exhibition's opening. == Relationship with Mishima ==

Man and Woman, Hosoe and Hijikata's first photographic collaboration, was seen by Hijikata's friend Yukio Mishima, who asked Hosoe for photographs to feature in his collection of essays. This led to their well-known Killed by Roses or Ordeal by Roses (Bara-kei, 薔薇刑, 1961–1962). In these photographs, Hosoe created a series of dark, erotic images centered on the male body with Mishima dramatically posing. The series was primarily taken at the writer's home in the Magome district of Tokyo between autumn 1961 and spring 1962. The photographs employ props such as a garden hose and a mallet to seemingly symbolic, yet ambiguous, effect. Mishima was pleased with the photographs, in part because of how they resisted straightforward or singular interpretations. Pleased with the outcome, the two decided to shoot together again. This time, Mishima told his wife to leave with their children beforehand, claiming the shoot may have negative effects on their morals. Occasionally featuring other people like Hijikata or the actress Kyoko Enami, these subsequent photos sometime evoke aspects of Mishima's favorite paintings by Botticelli and Giorgione. In the preface to the published edition, Mishima recounts, "The world to which I was abducted under the spell of his lens was abnormal, warped, sarcastic, grotesque, savage, and promiscuous . . . yet there was a clear undercurrent of lyricism murmuring gently through its unseen conduits." During this time, Daido Moriyama was Hosoe's assistant. He has recalled the complex and difficult darkroom technique he had to employ in order to produce the images that Hosoe had imagined. The compositing of negatives produces a dream-like or mythological effect, heightened by the stark contrast and suggestive imagery. One of these photographs appeared on the cover of Mishima's "Assault of Beauty" (Bi no shūgeki) in 1961, a Kōdansha-published collection of essays. The following year, the photographs were exhibited at "Non," an exhibition organized by Tatsuo Fukushima at the Matsuda Department Store in Tokyo. The images were then published as Barakei in March 1963 in a large-format book designed by Kōhei Sugiura. The book was organized into five chapters: Preface, Daily Civilian Life, The Scornful Clock, or the Slothful Witness, Various Blasphemies, and Ordeal by Roses. According to Hosoe, Mishima had suggested a handful of titles from which Barakei was chosen, including "Death and Loquaciousness," "Passion Variations," "Sketches of Martyrdom." Mishima would later say that Hosoe's photographs enabled him to live in "grotesque, barbaric and dissipated" inner world, shot with "a pure undercurrent of lyricism". The work earned Hosoe considerable notoriety in Japan. In 1970 Hosoe had decided to republish the collection of photographs shot with Mishima as a new, international edition. This new edition was to be designed by Tadanori Yokoo. Scheduled for November, the release was postponed when Yokoo was involved in a car accident. Shortly after, on 25 November, the "Mishima Incident" occurred, ending with Mishima's ritual suicide by seppuku in 1970. Hosoe has noted that he did notice some unusual things at this time, such as the early completion and delivery of Mishima's preface for Hosoe's forthcoming collection Hōyō (Embrace), although Mishima's suicide came as a complete surprised to his friend Hosoe. Hosoe halted work on the second edition of Killed by Roses, unsure of how it would be received in the immediate aftermath of Mishima's spectacular suicide. A significant reason was that he did not want to appear to be taking advantage of Mishima's death for his personal gain. However, Mishima widow, Yōko Mishima, persuaded him to go ahead with the planned release, noting that her late husband had been eagerly anticipating its release. The edition was published in January 1971 by Shūeisha International. Hosoe has since expressed uneasiness about being too closely associated with Mishima and his legacy, although his works with the writer comprise an enduring aspect of the photographer's legacy. == Later work and achievements ==

While Hosoe is often associated with Hijikata and Mishima for the influential, collaborative works he produced with them, he also photographed many of his other artist-friends. These include Simon Yotsuya, a cross-dressing dollmaker, and Kazuo Ohno, a Butoh dance collaborator with Hijikata who developed his own idiosyncratic style and performed until his death at age 103. The nineties also saw other activities of Hosoe in America, such as conducting photography workshops in various places that focused on the nude model. He was awarded The Royal Photographic Society's Special 150th Anniversary Medal and Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS) in recognition of a sustained, significant contribution to the art of photography in 2003. ==Publications==

• Hosoe, Eikoh, and Yukio Mishima. Killed by roses. Tokyo: Shueisha, 1963. • Hosoe, Eikoh. 鎌鼬 = Kamaitachi. Tokyo: Gendai Shichosha, 1969. • Hosoe, Eikoh. Embrace. Ashi sonorama co, 1971. • Hosoe, Eikoh, Tadanori Yokoo, and Yukio Mishima. Ordeal by roses reedited. Tokyo: Shueisha, 1971. • Hosoe, Eikoh. 薔薇刑 = Ba*ra*kei = Ordeal by roses: photographs of Yukio Mishima. New York: Aperture, 1985. . • Hill, Ronald J. Eikoh Hosoe. Carmel, CA: Friends of Photography, 1986. . • Hosoe, Eikoh. Eikoh Hosoe, meta. New York: International Center of Photography, 1991. . • Holborn, Mark. Eikoh Hosoe (Aperture Masters of Photography). New York: Aperture, 1999. . • Hosoe, Eikoh. 鎌鼬 = Kamaitachi. New York: Aperture, 2005. . Reprint edition. • Hosoe, Eikoh, and Kazuo Ohno. Butterfly dream. Kyoto: Seigensha, 2006. . • Hosoe, Eikoh. Deadly ashes: Pompeii, Auschwitz, Trinity Site, Hiroshima. Tokyo: Madosha, 2007. . • Hosoe, Eikoh. 鎌鼬 = Kamaitachi. New York: Aperture, 2009. . Trade edition. • Eikoh Hosoe. London: Mack, 2021. Edited by Yasufumi Nakamori. . ==References==