ULTIMATE Seiji Kurata 入墨の男 [Irezumi no otoko] Tattooed Man from Flash Up 1975 Gelatin silver print, printed 1978. Image: 53 x 42 cm (20 7/8 x 16 1/2 in.) Sheet: 61.7 x 50.5 cm (24 1/4 x 19 7/8 in.) Signed in rōmaji, dated and annotated ‘1975 taken’, ‘1978 printed’ and ‘池袋 文芸坐通りビル屋上’ [Ikebukuro, building rooftop on Bungeiza Street] in Japanese/English in pencil on the verso. Printed by Kurata in 1978 for his first-ever solo exhibition, the present work is one of only two signed early prints of this image in existence. The other print, printed in 1979 for another exhibition and similar in size, is held privately. Aside from the two signed early prints, only six early prints of this image – three small press prints and three exhibition proof prints – are known. All six prints are held by the artist and are not intended for commercial sale.
Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Exhibited Tokyo Night Dwellers, Canon Photo Gallery Amsterdam, 3 - 24 March, 1978, for the present lot Street PhotoRandom Tokyo 1975-79, Nikon Salon Ginza, Tokyo, 6 - 11 November, 1979 Japanese Contemporary Photography and its Origin, Comune di Bologna Galleria d'Arte Moderna, 28 January - 28 February 1979, Comune di Milano Ripartizione Cultura e Spettacolo Palazzo Reale, 22 March - 29 April 1979, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels, 6 June - 31 July 1979, I.C.A. London, 10 August - 16 September 1979 Floods of Light: Flash Photography 1951-1981, The Photographers Gallery, London, 10 December 1982 - 29 January 1983 20 Year Anniversary TOP Collection: Tokyo Tokyo and TOKYO, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo, 22 November 2016 - 29 January 2017 For other prints Literature 'Seiji Kurata SNAP-2 Ikebukuro', Camera Mainichi January 1977, p.84 Reflextions, Amsterdam: Canon Photo Gallery, 3 March 1978, cover, variant crop Flash Up: Street PhotoRandom Tokyo 1975-1979, Tokyo: Byakuya Shobō, 1980, cover, pl. 92 Floods of Light: Flash Photography 1851-1981, London: The Photographer's Gallery, 1982, p. 71 Beyond Japan: A Photo Theatre, London: Barbican, 1991, p. 14 G. Badger and Martin Parr The Photobook: A History, Volume I, London: Phaidon, 2004, p. 305, variant crop Flash Up 2013 , Tokyo: Zen Foto Gallery, 2013, pl. 68 TOP Collection: Tokyo Tokyo and TOKYO, Tokyo: Case Publishing, 2016, pl. 33 Catalogue Essay 或る瞬間が 永遠となることが あるだろうか もし あるとしたら 私は奇跡と思うし やがて時の流れと ・・・・そして愛 という言葉を想う 或る場の大気が 地上の他者たちが生 きる同じ空の下へと結ばれるなら 私は・・・・世界を受容する 倉田精二 東京 2017年４月 Can a certain moment become an eternity If so, I would feel it’s a miracle With the passing of time, eventually... Should the air of a certain place Meditating on the word of love connect with the air under the same sky where others on earth live then I will … accept the world Seiji Kurata Tokyo, April 2017 Beginnings When Seiji Kurata was 30 years old, he took a life changing gamble. Drawn to the possibilities of photography, he quit his job at a small thermostat factory and gave himself one year to pursue fully his new-found passion. His frst interest was taking 8mm films, which he had kept as a hobby while working at the factory, and it was around this time that he was introduced to photography by a friend who was deeply interested in the medium. This friend taught him how to photograph with 35mm film and work in the darkroom and also told him about Daidō Moriyama. Wanting to see Moriyama’s work, Kurata would visit his local second-hand bookshop for back issues of popular photography magazines like Asahi Camera and Camera Mainichi. It was during this one-year hiatus, which would become a 40-year career, that Kurata joined the independent photography school WORKSHOP, featuring faculty photographers Shōmei Tōmatsu, Eikoh Hosoe, Masahisa Fukase Daidō Moriyama, Nobuyoshi Araki and Noriaki Yokosuka Spearheaded by the leading photographers of the time, both the school (1974-76) and its eponymous quarterly periodical (1974-76, 8 volumes), were highly influential. A student could choose which photographer’s seminar to take, and for him, the choice to study under Moriyama was clear-cut. According to Kurata, what he took away from this experience was the greatness of the Japanese proverb「芸は身を助く」 [Gei wa mi wo tasuku], which translates to ‘Art brings bread’, meaning ‘Learn a trade, for the time will come when you shall need it’. Tattooed Man In summer 1975, while taking Moriyama’s one-year seminar at WORKSHOP, Kurata began photographing the seedy streets of Ikebukuro in north-western Tokyo at night, using a medium-format camera (Asahi Pentax 6 x 7 cm) and a strong 15 x 20 cm strobe. Focusing on the underbelly of Japanese society, his subjects included yakuza, strippers, transvestites, prostitutes and their clients. Tattooed Man – the powerful and provocative photograph offered here – presents a heavily tattooed yakuza in his loincloth
ULTIMATE Seiji Kurata 入墨の男 [Irezumi no otoko] Tattooed Man from Flash Up 1975 Gelatin silver print, printed 1978. Image: 53 x 42 cm (20 7/8 x 16 1/2 in.) Sheet: 61.7 x 50.5 cm (24 1/4 x 19 7/8 in.) Signed in rōmaji, dated and annotated ‘1975 taken’, ‘1978 printed’ and ‘池袋 文芸坐通りビル屋上’ [Ikebukuro, building rooftop on Bungeiza Street] in Japanese/English in pencil on the verso. Printed by Kurata in 1978 for his first-ever solo exhibition, the present work is one of only two signed early prints of this image in existence. The other print, printed in 1979 for another exhibition and similar in size, is held privately. Aside from the two signed early prints, only six early prints of this image – three small press prints and three exhibition proof prints – are known. All six prints are held by the artist and are not intended for commercial sale.
Provenance Acquired directly from the artist Exhibited Tokyo Night Dwellers, Canon Photo Gallery Amsterdam, 3 - 24 March, 1978, for the present lot Street PhotoRandom Tokyo 1975-79, Nikon Salon Ginza, Tokyo, 6 - 11 November, 1979 Japanese Contemporary Photography and its Origin, Comune di Bologna Galleria d'Arte Moderna, 28 January - 28 February 1979, Comune di Milano Ripartizione Cultura e Spettacolo Palazzo Reale, 22 March - 29 April 1979, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels, 6 June - 31 July 1979, I.C.A. London, 10 August - 16 September 1979 Floods of Light: Flash Photography 1951-1981, The Photographers Gallery, London, 10 December 1982 - 29 January 1983 20 Year Anniversary TOP Collection: Tokyo Tokyo and TOKYO, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo, 22 November 2016 - 29 January 2017 For other prints Literature 'Seiji Kurata SNAP-2 Ikebukuro', Camera Mainichi January 1977, p.84 Reflextions, Amsterdam: Canon Photo Gallery, 3 March 1978, cover, variant crop Flash Up: Street PhotoRandom Tokyo 1975-1979, Tokyo: Byakuya Shobō, 1980, cover, pl. 92 Floods of Light: Flash Photography 1851-1981, London: The Photographer's Gallery, 1982, p. 71 Beyond Japan: A Photo Theatre, London: Barbican, 1991, p. 14 G. Badger and Martin Parr The Photobook: A History, Volume I, London: Phaidon, 2004, p. 305, variant crop Flash Up 2013 , Tokyo: Zen Foto Gallery, 2013, pl. 68 TOP Collection: Tokyo Tokyo and TOKYO, Tokyo: Case Publishing, 2016, pl. 33 Catalogue Essay 或る瞬間が 永遠となることが あるだろうか もし あるとしたら 私は奇跡と思うし やがて時の流れと ・・・・そして愛 という言葉を想う 或る場の大気が 地上の他者たちが生 きる同じ空の下へと結ばれるなら 私は・・・・世界を受容する 倉田精二 東京 2017年４月 Can a certain moment become an eternity If so, I would feel it’s a miracle With the passing of time, eventually... Should the air of a certain place Meditating on the word of love connect with the air under the same sky where others on earth live then I will … accept the world Seiji Kurata Tokyo, April 2017 Beginnings When Seiji Kurata was 30 years old, he took a life changing gamble. Drawn to the possibilities of photography, he quit his job at a small thermostat factory and gave himself one year to pursue fully his new-found passion. His frst interest was taking 8mm films, which he had kept as a hobby while working at the factory, and it was around this time that he was introduced to photography by a friend who was deeply interested in the medium. This friend taught him how to photograph with 35mm film and work in the darkroom and also told him about Daidō Moriyama. Wanting to see Moriyama’s work, Kurata would visit his local second-hand bookshop for back issues of popular photography magazines like Asahi Camera and Camera Mainichi. It was during this one-year hiatus, which would become a 40-year career, that Kurata joined the independent photography school WORKSHOP, featuring faculty photographers Shōmei Tōmatsu, Eikoh Hosoe, Masahisa Fukase Daidō Moriyama, Nobuyoshi Araki and Noriaki Yokosuka Spearheaded by the leading photographers of the time, both the school (1974-76) and its eponymous quarterly periodical (1974-76, 8 volumes), were highly influential. A student could choose which photographer’s seminar to take, and for him, the choice to study under Moriyama was clear-cut. According to Kurata, what he took away from this experience was the greatness of the Japanese proverb「芸は身を助く」 [Gei wa mi wo tasuku], which translates to ‘Art brings bread’, meaning ‘Learn a trade, for the time will come when you shall need it’. Tattooed Man In summer 1975, while taking Moriyama’s one-year seminar at WORKSHOP, Kurata began photographing the seedy streets of Ikebukuro in north-western Tokyo at night, using a medium-format camera (Asahi Pentax 6 x 7 cm) and a strong 15 x 20 cm strobe. Focusing on the underbelly of Japanese society, his subjects included yakuza, strippers, transvestites, prostitutes and their clients. Tattooed Man – the powerful and provocative photograph offered here – presents a heavily tattooed yakuza in his loincloth
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