ポンペイ、アウシュビッツ、トリニティ・サイト、ヒロシマ、時空の彼方からあなたにはどんな言葉が聴こえてきますか?そして何を祈りますか。 われらの死は天災によるものだから避けられない宿命にあった。しかし、現代の恐るべき核兵器は人間が作ったものだから、あなたがた現代人の不退転の決意と英知があれば避けることができる。―わたくしはヒロシマ、ナガサキの死者の死骸とそっくりな形をしたポンペイの死者の石膏像から以上のようなメッセージをはっきりと聴き取ったのである。―細江英公

写真家・細江英公が、舞踏家・大野一雄を４０年余にわたり撮影した記念碑的写真集。大野一雄が１００歳の誕生日を迎える今秋、不世出の２人の芸術家のコラボレーションともいえる写真が、ついに結実。 土方巽とともに個性溢れる舞踏の世界を築いた大野一雄。細江英公が４０年に亘り撮り続けた鮮烈な写真の数々。舞踏ファン垂涎の好著。

Eikoh Hosoe's Kamaitachi, a classic and groundbreaking body of work, was originally released in 1969 as a limited-edition photobook of one thousand copies. A unique collaboration between photographer Eikoh Hosoe and Tatsumi Hijikata, the founder of ankoku butoh dance, the work documents their visit to a farming village in northern Japan and the improvisational performance that resulted, made with the participation of local villagers and inspired by the legend of kamaitachi, a weasel-like demon who haunts the rice fields and slashes those he encounters with a sickle. In 2005, in close consultation with the artist, Aperture released a limited-edition facsimile in homage to the original. In this 2009 edition, Aperture is honored to reinterpret this paragon of Japanese bookmaking, which now includes four never-before-published images from the classic Kamaitachi series and a new text by preeminent Japanese scholar Donald Keene, as well as essays by Eikoh Hosoe and Suzo Takiguchi. Aperture is doubly pleased to make this enchanting body of work available, for the first time ever, in an affordable trade edition. This version was painstakingly reworked by renowned graphic artist Ikko Tanaka, designer of the original volume, shortly before his death. Hosoe and Hijikata, who first met in 1959, share the same birthplace: the Tohoku countryside in Northern Japan, where most of the images were made. Hosoe photographed Hijikata's spontaneous interactions with the landscape and the people they encountered. A magnificent and seductive combination of performance and photography, the two artists enact an intense investigation of tradition and an exploration, both personal and symbolic, of Japanese society during a time of massive upheaval and change. In an accompanying personal essay, published here for the first time, Hosoe recounts how he became one of the Beat Generation artists, who were willing to try anything new, and his exploration of how traditional documentary photography and personal expression could be merged into what he describes as "subjective documentary."

おとこと女』『薔薇刑』『鎌鼬』『抱擁』など、1960-1970年代 の写真界を代表する名作を収載。細江英公の活動を網羅する図録。 日本の戦後写真に新たな地平を切り開き、数々の名作、問題作を世に送り出した 写真家・細江英公。1960年代の作品『おとこと女』や『薔薇刑』『鎌鼬』は、 国際的にも同時代の写真表現を代表する作品として位置づけられており、70年 代以降も『抱擁』や『ガウディの宇宙』を発表。止むことのない旺盛な作家活動 を繰り広げている。 本書は写真絵本『たかちゃんとぼく』や最新刊、『胡蝶の夢　舞踏家・大野 一雄』(2006年青幻舎)からも作品を収載。解説や貴重なテキストを含 む、細江英公の豊かな写真世界を伝える待望の写真集である。 ＜収録作品＞ 『おとこと女』『薔薇刑』『鎌鼬』『抱擁』『たかちゃんとぼく』 『おかあさんのばか』『土方巽舞踏大鑑 かさぶたとキャラメル』 『胡蝶の夢　舞踏家・大野一雄』『ガウディの宇宙』 『〔妖精物語〕ルナロッサ』『春本・浮世絵うつし』

"As the author of the text and the subject of the photographs, Mishima almost tenderly exploits his most intimate obsessions: his erotic desires, his creativity, his body, his premeditated death. Hosoe's work mirrors Mishima's complexity and contradictions in photographs whose images melt into superimposed layers of symbol and meaning."--Booklist ". . . an opulently printed, large-format book . . . Hosoe explores light and shadow, and collages images from Renaissance paintings and other sources, resulting in photographs that possess a piercing beauty, photographs where there are no lies and no deceptions."--"25 Best Books of 2002," THE magazine, December 2002/January 2003