NY: Aperture Foundation, 2005. Hosoe, Eiko. Limited Facsimile Edition. Folio, (41) folding double-pages; b&w photogravures from photographs. A fine copy, bound in illustrated cloth, with clear acetate dust jacket, titled in blue ink. Housed in a paper over boards brightly colored clamshell box, especially designed for this edition by Tadanori Yokoo; the front panel has a faint scratch. SIGNED in Japanese and with the photographer's chop mark, and numbered, 31 of 500 copies on a bookplate affixed to the front pastedown. Additionally, this copy was INSCRIBED by the photographer in silver ink in both English and Japanese, and dated upon publication in 2005 on the opposite free-endpaper. Item #52040

To open this book is to see "sky blue"; each page is gate-folded with both verso and recto a field of blue. To look one must open the "sky." Kamaitachi is an old myth of "The Weasel's Sickle" - a "lacerated wound caused by a state of vacuum, which is produced partially in the air, owing to a small whirlwind." During World War II, Hosoe was evacuated to the countryside. He returned to photograph, with the aid of renowned dancer, Tatsumi Hijikata, this tale of madness triggered by jealousy.

Parr/Badger THE PHOTOBOOK A HISTORY, Vol 1, p. 284-285; THE OPEN BOOK p. 248-249 for the first edition.

Price: $800.00