Lot 43: Nishimonai, Akita Prefecture from Fushi Kaden , 1976

ISSEI SUDA (b.1940) Nishimonai, Akita Prefecture from Fushi Kaden , 1976 gelatin silver print signed in Japanese in pencil on verso 8 7/8 x 8 7/8in. (22.5 x 22.5cm.)

From the artist;
acquired by the present owner, 2000.

RARE VINTAGE PRINTS FROM ISSEI SUDA'S FUSHI KADEN

'...I feel that the 6x6 format is suited to capturing what your eye has unexpectedly caught and is compatible with me for "the moment is everything."' -- Issei Suda (Asahi Camera, March 1986.)

This and the following lot are key images from Suda's seeminal series Fushi Kaden, serialised in Camera Mainichi in 1975-77 and published as a book in 1978. From 1971 to 1977, Suda moved away from his commercial work and immersed himself in Fushi Kaden, a personal project in which he traveled throughout Japan and captured within the square frame of his favoured 6x6 Hasselblad camera an eerie realism. The title Fushi Kaden, translated as 'transmission of the flower of acting style', is taken from one of the classic treatises on Noh theatre by Zeami, the 15th century aesthetician, actor and playwright.
These two images -- Nishimonai, Akita Prefecture and Miura Peninsula, Kanagawa Prefecture -- were printed by Suda at the time they were taken in three paper sizes: 8x10", 10x12" and 11x14". He made only one print in each size and thus only three vintage prints of each image exist. The 8x10" prints of these images are in the collection of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and the 10x12" prints are in the personal collection of the photographer. The 11x14" prints offered here are the only available vintage prints of these images. The prints found in other institutions, including Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, are all modern prints.

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 17.5% on the buyer's premium.
This mysterious image was taken in Nishimonai in Akita Prefecture during Obon, a Japanese Buddhist festival honouring one's ancestral spirits. Bon'odori [Bon dance] takes place during Obon and each region in Japan has a local Bon dance. The Nishimonai Bon dancer depicted in this photograph dons a hood with two small eye-holes and a cloth trailing down the front and back, secured with a cloth headband. The Nishimonai tradition of the Bon dancers dressing in these concealing costumes is said to have originated from an Edo period tale of a feudal lord who pursued young beautiful women and forced them to become his mistresses. This curious appearance is intended to symbolically represent the spirits of these women.