TANIZAKI, Jun'ichiro - HOSOE, Eikoh (photo.).

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

A Portrait of Shunkin. First Limited Editions Club edition, limited issue, number 137 of 300 copies signed by the photographer Eikoh Hosoe and the calligrapher Shunkei Yahagi. Hosoe's stirring photographs "represent the heroine as she might perhaps appear in her varied moods at crucial episodes of the story: Shunkin serene and imperious, Shunkin yearning and vulnerable, Shunkin in a transport of emotion" (LEC newsletter, p. [iii]).Hosoe (1933-2024) was one of Japan's most iconic post-war photographers, recognized for his high-contrast black and white figure studies. The three compositions in this edition were from his Kimono series: Number 2 ("The Night of a Newly Married Bride"), Number 4 ("Hard Times of Marriage"), and Number 6 ("Widow in Mourning at the Funeral"). Hosoe's received the Royal Photographic Society's 150th anniversary medal in 2003.A Portrait of Shunkin was released as a short story in 1933. The romantic and psychological drama follows the blind musician Shunkin and her soon-to-be lover Sasuke, as she wrestles with her disability and fear of loneliness. Sasuke eventually blinds himself out of dedication to their love.

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