Eikoh Hosoe: Simmon a Private Landscape

Signed Limited Edition, 2012

FINE Condition

This is a signed limited edition of “Eikoh Hosoe: Simmon a Private Landscape” published by Akio Nagasawa, Tokyo, in 2012 with a limitation of 900 copies this being number 194. The original photographs that are included in this book were taken by Eikoh Hosoe as part of his Simon Yotsuya series that was published in 1971. The title of the original portfolio is “Shimon (Simon) Yotsuya’s Prelude” and is extremely scare with a limitation of 20 that was released as a signed limitation edition. Japanese Exposures wrote a very nice critique of the original publication, “The Prelude of Yotsuya Simon, a portfolio of photographs by Hosoe Eikoh, is an interesting collaborative effort between Hosoe and Simon as model. It may be considered simultaneously both a treatise on landscape and a treatise on the body. Prior to this work, Hosoe had published Kamaitachi, his masterful book of photographs of Hijikata Tatsumi, the originator of Ankoku Butoh (Dance of Darkness), taken against a background of scenes from a farming village in northeastern Japan. The photographs in his work with Simon were taken with the same concept in mind, this time with Tokyo as the stage. These strange-looking beings suddenly burst in upon the tranquil everyday. But Hijikata’s and Simon’s bodies and their interaction with their landscapes provide a good contrast with each other. Whereas Hijikata’s masculine physique causes an intense dissimilation from the landscape, Simon’s body, divested of sex, assimilates into the landscape of Tokyo’s old shitamachi area.” From the publisher of the current edition, “Through the black-and-white images of experimental Japanese photographer Eikoh Hosoe, ‘Simmon: A Private Landscape’ follows the bizarre and suggestive transvestite character Simmon through a multitude of urban, natural and social settings in Japan, intimately recording his playful antics, introverted loneliness and stigmatization by those who encounter him. Irreverent and irrational, the photographic series is a touching journey with deep psychological implications.”

Measuring approximately 14” x 11” and containing 36 full page black-and-white photographic illustrations, the book is bound in red fabric woven cloth covered boards and was issued without a dust jacket and is housed in a functional slipcase. The book is signed and numbered by Eikoh Hosoe on the limitation page. Both the book and slipcase are in FINE condition.

Photographs of the book cover, Eikoh Hosoe with the book, the signature page, as well as some images contained in the book appear in the photo section of the listing.