Front cover of the clamshell box

According to Japanese legend, the Kamaitachi is a demon that haunts rice paddies and villages in the north of the country. Literally a ‘sickle-weasel’, the kamaitachi bursts forth from vacuums in the air, slashing villagers in the ensuing whirlwhind. Photographer Eikoh Hosoe, who as a boy was evacuated to a northern village during the war, returned to the land of the kamaitachi in late 1967. With him was Tatsumi Hijikata, the founder of Butoh, an avant-garde dance movement. Born in politically charged post-war Japan, Butoh was a rejection of the influx of foreign culture that many considered was displacing traditional culture.

This collaboration led to one of the most intricate and ceremonial photobooks in the history of photography. As Hijikata became the kamaitachi, Hosoe became the camera brandishing villager who revisits his youth, memories of the war, and hopes for the future of art.

Each blue gatefold opens to a show a tri-tone black and white photograph

Published in 1969, the first edition of Kamaitachi had a print run of 1000 very fragile copies. Instead of the clamshell box you see here, it was housed in a white slipcase. The second edition was printed in 2005. Signed and stamped by Eikoh Hosoe, the English edition had a print run of 500 copies (the reviewed copy is #300/500). An additional 500 Japanese copies were printed without the clamshell box. There are 43 gatefolds that unfurl to tritone black and white photographs that are approximately 58cm by 38cm in size.

Kamaitachi in a rice paddy, the sky a vacuum

Kamaitachi waits, weighing down the sky

The political upheaval of Japan in the 1960s created an energetic underground art scene. The post-war American occupation had thrust an industrial and cultural revolution upon the populace that many feared was homogenising the country into a bland consumer oriented society. A respectful but energetic return to ancestral roots, and the creation of new traditions, was one reaction. Butoh was part mourning, mockery, celebration, protest, and storytelling. Hosoe photographs the spirit of both Butoh and Kamaitachi in dark grainy shadows. A heavy emptiness pervades each picture and lends a Japanese aesthetic to most shots. Viewing the ominous skies in these prints, one wonders if this represents Hosoe’s childhood memory of the war-time evacuation.

Hijikata believes that “it is possible to make a superb dance with the eyes alone”, and from the moment the kamaitachi performance starts the viewer is aware of the dual nature of the work. Hosoe has recruited Hijikata for the performance but from the outset we have the impression that it is the spontaneous kamaitachi who is choreographing the photographer rather than the reverse. This is theatrical photography and the viewer is part of the interaction.

Spine of the clamshell box

Part fool, part demon, kamaitachi entertains and terrorises

To view Kamaitachi, one must begin the performance by removing it from the large clamshell box, itself a work of art. A sheet of acetate is wrapped around the book. The cover, printed on silk screen, shows the kamaitachi running through a rice paddy. Inside, every photograph is a mini-scene that the reader is invited to open and begin. Each print is the inside of a vibrant blue gatefold. This blue sky must be peeled back to reveal the rampaging kamaitachi bewitching the village and sucking the shadows from the sky.

The villagers mourn while Kamaitachi listens

Front cover, silk screen with acetate wrapper and title

The kamaitachi in turns plays the ‘fool’ and the ‘beast’. Arriving in the village he is the pitiful loinclothed man, a plaything to be laughed at. He becomes the kamaitachi, sprinting across rice paddies, leaping across the frame, attacking villagers and children. He haunts the village through the night. At the end, he lies with eyes closed and arms crossed over his chest. Dead, or perhaps just playing dead.

Interior of the clamshell box

Exterior of the clamshell box

The legacy of Kamaitachi is evident in Japanese photography today. From the frenetic pacings of Daido Moriyama to the surreal underbelly of Araki Nobuyoshi's Tokyo, Hosoe's passion for enhancing modern photography with Japanese tradition lives on.

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