Eikoh Hosoe was born on March 18th, 1933 to Yonejiro his father and Mitsu his mother. He had two brothers Uichiro who was older and died in China during World War II and a younger brother named Isao. His name was originally Toshinihiro Hosoe, however he adopted the name “Eikoh” at age 16.This name was one of several given to him by his cousin Yonejiro. Each name symbolized entry into a new era. In 1952 Hosoe took first prize in the student division of the Fuji Photo Contest with his photograph called Poddie-Chan. This inspired young Hosoe into photograph and eventually he decide to go to Tokyo College of Photography.
In 1953 Hosoe was very impressed by an exhibition of works by Edward Weston which he saw in the American Cultural Center in Tokyo. Hosoe was moved by Westonʼs abstract photographs of tree trunks and seaweed, and how he portrayed them to show much more then what they actually were. When Hosoe graduated Tokyo College of Photography, he worked independently as a freelance photographer. He was uncertain that it would bring in enough money and he was in fact right. He then in 1955 wrote a book called 35 mm Photography. This book was quite successful and made him enough money to travel to Shikoku Island, Kobe and Osaka for two months to capture the new surroundings with his camera.
In 1956 Hosoe had a one-man exhibition named “An American Girl in Tokyo”. It was a fictional story told though photographs and text. It was about the friendship and love between an American girl and a Japanese man. It was a very successful exhibition
and was sold to Chubu Nippon Radio Station. The photographs where also published in
Photo Salon magazine. Hosoe received a assignment from Kodansha Publishers in 1961 to photograph the author Yukio Mishima for the cover of his first book called, The Attack of Beauty. Mishima wanted Hosoe to treat him like any other object.
So therefore, Hosoe photographed Mishima in his private garden, half naked, wrapped up in a long water hose, laying down by a wall. Mishima was very happy with the results of the photographs that he decided that he wanted Hosoe to design his whole book. Hosoe and Mishima continued to work together. Hosoe used Mishima for a lot of his work.
In 1962 Hosoe married Misako Imai and had his first child, Kenji in 1963. In 1970, Mishima killed himself. Hosoe was pressured by the media to give them photographs of Mishima. Hosoe refused because he believed people wouldnʼt understand the photographs. In 1972 Hosoe traveled to San Francisco, where he met Jack Welpott and Judy Dater. They introduced him to Cole Weston, who was the son of Edward Weston. Hosoe convinced younger Weston to let him translate Edward Westonʼs book Daybook of Edward Weston into Japanese.
In 1975 Hosoe became a professor at Tokyo College of Photography. He asked the college to open a gallery of photographs on campus open to the public and that a
collection should begin of fine photographs from all over the world. Both of those
requests happened and the college opened a gallery called the Shadai Gallery. In 1983 Hosoe taught a workshop at Arles for the third time. As with most of the workshops he had taught in the U.S. and Europe before, this one too was oriented to
nudity. Hosoe began to collect nude photographs with the title The Naked School. This
was a collection not just of his nude photographs but also of his workshop students as well as colleagues from other occasions.
SOME OF HIS WORK
Man and Woman:
His series of Man and Woman was the starting point for Hosoe to begin to think about
photography “more deeply and more freely” he said. The models in this series were
Tatsumi Hijikata, the founder of the Butoh Dance Troupe and members of his group.
Hosoe quotes, “My encounter with Hijikata took place at his first dance recital at Daiichi Seimei Hall in Tokyo, in the spring of 1959. Even upon first meeting, I had a strong feeling, almost instinctive, that this man would inevitable exist within me for a long time.” Hosoe also quotes, “Hijikataʼs dancing was overwhelmingly creative. It was not my intention, however, to photograph the dancing as it took place on stage itself, because I feared that if I were to photograph an isolated portion of the performance, I would miss what was happening as a whole entity. What I wanted to do, rather, was to concentrate upon the totality of the stage with my eyes and ears wide open.” He then back in his studio would “create a dance” of his own with their bodies. With these photographs, Hosoe transform the human body into a naked object of a man and a woman filled with drama and rivalry between the sexes on a equal basis.
Embrace:
Just after the series Man and Woman, Hosoe started another series or even the sequel
to Man and Woman called Embrace. However, after Hosoe started this project, Bill
Brandt published a very similar series to Embrace titled Perspective of Nude and it was brought to Japan. Hosoe was devastated and decided to abandon the series. However, eventually he decided to complete Embrace. These photographs are never taken with a dominant angle, so in fact it is not about the opposite sex but about discovering the equal and diverse relationship between a man and a woman. These photographs are also very abstract.
Kamaitachi:
Kamaitachi is the name given in Japan to a animal, the “sickle-toothed weasel,” that
nobody has ever really seen, because it is invisible. This series is photographs of
Tatsumi Hijikata. It is a documentary of him as a dancer and also a record of Hosoeʼs
memories of a child. Hosoe quotes, “children were forced to evacuate from the cities to the countryside during World War II.”
Simmon:
Hosoe use to wandered around Tokyoʼs old downtown district, home to many homeless
people, beggars and prostitutes. He once came upon a woman with red lips. Hosoe
tried taking her picture, however, she yelled at him to stop. Once she had talked, Hosoe realized that this woman was a man. He quoted, “I had been too naive in assuming that anyone with painted lips must be a female.” Later on, Hosoe came across actress called Simmon. For some reason, this actress (who was beautiful) reminded Hosoe of that red-lipped man he saw when he was younger. He began photographing Simmon in the same area where he use to wander. He quotes, “As the story proceeded, Simmon disappeared from my photographs, and only the landscapes remained.”
Ordeal by Roses:
Ordeal by Roses is a collection of photographs that depict Hosoeʼs imagination. These
photographs were actually published in Hosoeʼs book, “Barakei” which means ordeal by
roses. It is also a unique piece that can never be done again. Yukio Mishima was
Hosoeʼs model. The theme of this series is “life and death”.
