Kamaitachi

Eikoh Hosoe’s groundbreaking book, Kamaitachi, was first published in 1969 as a limited edition of 1,000 copies. This exquisite volume was never widely available outside of Japan and has long been out of print. The photographs were originally produced as a singular collaboration between the photographer and Tatsumi Hijikata, the founder of Ankoku Butoh dance. In 1965, Hosoe and Hijikata visited a small farming village in Tohoku, northern Japan. Drawing in the villagers as performers and using the rural landscape as a theatrical set for an improvisational butoh performance, Hosoe photographed Hijikata’s spontaneous interactions with the landscape and the people. The performance was inspired by the legend of the Kamaitachi, a weasel-like demon who haunts the rice fields and slashes those who encounter him. Using performance and photography, the two artists enacted an intense investigation of tradition and an exploration both personal and symbolic of the convulsions of Japanese society at the time. Hosoe considers the project to be a “subjective documentary” of both Hijikata as an innovator of butoh dance and of Hosoe’s early memories of his evacuation to rural Japan during World War II.

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38 x 30.7 cm
36 Gatefolds
Printed in Tritone

Photography:EIKOH HOSOE
Performance:TATSUMI HIJIKATA
Preface:SHUZO TAKIGUCHI
Poem:TOYOICHIRO MIYOSHI
Interior design:IKKO TANAKA
Case design:TADANORI YOKOO

Publisher:Aperture Foundation
Price:US$350.00
ISBN:1-931788-80-4