ARAKI Nobuyoshi

ARAKI Nobuyoshi, who is generally known simply as Arākī, is one of Japan's leading contemporary photographers. Born in 1940, he grew up in Tokyo's Minowa district, as the son of a geta (wooden clogs) shop-owner who was also an amateur photographer. It was his father's influence that set the young Araki on the course to be a photographer, a career he pursued by entering the advertising agency Dentsu Ink. after graduating from Chiba University. In 1964, Araki published a book of photographs of the young happy faces of children living in a public housing project. After "Sacchin," as the book was titled, won the inaugural Taiyo Prize, Araki quit Dentsu Ink. and began working on a freelance basis. He soon expanded his photographic oeuvre to include very private aspects of his own life, documenting his and his wife Yoko's honeymoon in a book titled "Sentimental Journey" (1971). In addition to what became known as "Shi Shashin" (I-photos), he explored his own notions of sex, life and death through photographs of nudes, flowers and landscapes. His vigorous approach to photography has become, like his characteristic round glasses, a hallmark of his work and the focus of much attention publicly.

100 Beauties in Yokohama is a series of photographs that Araki took in the Grand Gallery of the Yokohama Museum of Art during the 2008 exhibition "MOGI Kenichiro, hana, KAKUTA Mitsuyo, ARAKI Nobuyoshi: Four Views of the Collection of the Yokohama Museum of Art." The 100 women were selected from members of the public who applied to model. Copied Beauty was also exhibited in that 2008 show. For this, Araki took close-up photographs of the pictures of women included in Meiji Period magazines - the gravure idols of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Araki's photographs of the pictures manage to give great depth to the women's expressions. Visitors can enjoy the juxtaposition between the contemporary women photographed in Yokohama and the beauties of the Meiji Period captured in woodblock prints - both of which display Araki's unique perspective.

ARAKI Nobuyoshi,Copied Beauty, from

ARAKI Nobuyoshi
Copied Beauty, from "Edo Geisha" by TAKEUCHI Keisyū
2008/Color print/106.0×87.0cm/
Donated by Mr. ARAKI Nobuyoshi

TAKEUCHI Keisyū,Edo Geisha (from Bungei Club,

TAKEUCHI Keisyū
Edo Geisha (from Bungei Club, volume 10, No.1, published by Hakubunkan)
1904/Color woodblock print/29.2×21.9cm

ARAKI Nobuyoshi,100 Beauties in Yokohama

ARAKI Nobuyoshi 100 Beauties in Yokohama
2008/Monochrome print (set of 100) /each 90.0×60.0cm
Donated by Mr. ARAKI Nobuyoshi/Photo © ARAI Takashi