HOSOE’S EMBRACE, 1971

HOSOE, Eikoh. Hoyo (Embrace). Tokyo: Shashin Hyoronsha, 1971. Folio, original black cloth, original dust jacket, original cardboard slipcase with paper wrap-around. $2200.

First edition of Hosoe’s photo-essay on “the dialogue between men and women,” with over 70 black and white photogravures and a preface by Hosoe’s friend and collaborator Yukio Mishima.

Published in 1971, a year after Mishima’s dramatic suicide, Embrace is a continuation of Hosoe’s ongoing explorations of the male and female bodies. It focused, like his earlier collections Man and Woman and Killed by Roses, “on the dialogue between men and women and extracted the essence of life by cleverly abstracting the flesh. The images are erotic, but not affectionate and show physical angst, the struggle of the genders. Hosoe’s camera never captures the bodies from a dominant angle, therefore, the series of works in this exhibition are not merely expressing the bodies of the opposite sex, but are depicting the discovery of the equal and diverse relationships, such as the dialogue” (Galleria Carla Sozzani). Hosoe “had a particular talent for making exciting books” (Parr & Badger, 5). Text in Japanese.

A fine copy of one of Hosoe’s most magnificent works.