Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Rare artifacts from 1960es

These rare materials have little to do with Terayama, but they belong to the same (exciting!) epoch in the history of Japanese art.

The two surrealist shorts (Pupu by Motoharu Jonouchi, and Sa-in by Masao Adachi) are often mentioned in historical accounts of Japanese underground cinema, but almost never seen. Luckily, they have recently surfaced on the net.

Tamotsu Yato's photo albums are a fine and idiosyncratic example of Japanese homoerotic photography, produced in collaboration with Yukio Mishima.

Please download and install eMule to be able to access the media resources referenced below...

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Pūpū (Motoharu Jōnouchi, 1960)
プ-プ- (城之内元晴, 1960)


ed2k: pupu.avi


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Sa-in aka The Blocked Vagina
(Masao Adachi, 1963)

鎖陰 (足立正生, 1963)


ed2k: sain.avi


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Tamotsu Yatō - 矢頭保

ed2k: Young Samurai.rar
ed2k: Naked Festival.rar
ed2k: OTOKO.rar

3 photo albums: Young Samurai: Bodybuilders of Japan (体道:日本のボディビルダーたち), Naked festival: A Photo-Essay (裸祭り) and OTOKO: Photo-Studies of the Young Japanese Male.

12 comments:

said...

Most rare, indeed.

Jorby said...

Hello! I apologize for replying to an older post, but I was wondering if there was any way for you to provide Otoko on rapidshare or mediafire? I've been looking for that particular image of the male in Samurai headgear for quite some time, but have only come across scans that were edited too much in photoshop. I've been trying to get emule to work for me, but I've been having some trouble.

If you'd prefer not to share it that way, I totally understand =) I thought I'd just try and ask. Thank you!

helge79 said...

Well, out of my dedication to disseminating Yato's work, here you go:

http://rapidshare.com/files/230375992/OTOKO.rar.html

But I very much recommend you to install eMule: there are many great things there, and I will not be able to upload all of them to rapidshare! And getting eMule to work cannot possibly be too difficult!

Jorby said...

Thank you so much for doing that! I spoke to a friend who was much more technically inclined than I and he told me my problem was with port forwarding =) I'll definitely try it out again and hopefully it'll work out.

Thanks again for doing that!

helge79 said...

That's great!

eMule should work even if port forwarding is not set up. You'll just get what's called a low ID, and fewer peers will be accessible to you (namely, only those who do not have a low ID themselves). Your downloads will be slower, but they will still go on. Just be patient! Making the Kademlia (Kad) network part of eMule to work is generally advantageous and even more important if you have a low ID. Setting up port forwarding should be easy if you're using a personal home network, but if you're logging in from a large institutional network, I think you have to be a system admin to do it.

Christopher Layer said...

Thanks so much for posting the piece on Yato. I recently placed a copy of "Samurai" into the hands of a young painter from Kanagawa prefect on a recent visit to Japan. Sadly, I still can't afford Otoko, and have never seen the piece in full. ED2K is out for me too, and I hate to ask, but is there any slim chance you can renew the rapidshare file? I do understand if it is too much trouble. And thank you again for acknowledging this man's great and pioneering talent for people in Japan.

helge79 said...

Here is OTOKO for you:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=00ODOGF6

It's wonderful to hear that you've brought a young artist in contact with Yato's heritage. I believe that his brotherhood-in-arms aesthetics would be a very valuable addition (if not a replacement) to the shopping-in-a-mall feel of the contemporary homoerotic photography. OTOKO is certainly the most artful of the 3 books, and certainly my favorite.

Christopher Layer said...

I have a similar feeling for Yato's art: To me, the pieces represent much of the feeling of exploration/eastern identity that I get when I am with my friends in Japan. Homo/hetero gender identity need not be the sole quarter of the West. Oddly, I have this feeling that Yato's Western friends may have "liberated" his camera lens, perhaps showing him that Japanese identities/customs/deserved to be showcased in their own fashion. Thanks again for your kindness!
Chris

helge79 said...

Thank you for the comment, Chris! It seems to me, however, that you are unduly patronizing of the Far Eastern culture. For all I can tell, Japan and China historically have a much richer tradition of romantic friendship, male intimacy and homoeroticism than the West (and no religiously backed homophobia, though strong heteronormative notions of family duties). You can look at the wikipedia article for a starter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_Japan

This said, I agree that Yato's choice to express his sensibilities openly and publicly through the medium of photography has probably been influenced by his Western acquaintances. And, whichever way it worked, I find the result very noteworthy!

Anonymous said...

Could you reupload the "Young Samurai" set please?
Thank you

wan said...

I've been looking all over for Young Samurai since it's mentioned by a friend that Yukio Mishima's involved. Downloading emule now!

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