Black Sun: The Eyes of Four, Roots and Innovation in Japanese Photography

Black Sun is an unprecedented portrait of postwar Japan through the eyes of four of the nation's most significant photographers. It encompasses and connects ancient Japanese prophecies, the terror of nuclear destruction, and the results of swift and massive westernization.

Eikoh Hosoe, Shomei Tomatsu, Masahisa Fukase, and Daido Moriyama are widely acknowledged in Japan as masters of photography. Their work ranges from the metaphoric to the documentary, from the presentation of post-apocalyptic artifacts to portraits of crows and crowded city streets. However varied the approach, this work is unified by a sense of innovation and a persistent search for native roots.

Eikoh Hosoe's representation of the demonic myth Kamaitachi is structured like a dance, enacted among the villagers of the far north country and evoking Hosoe's childhood memories of the final years of World War II.

Shomei Tomatsu's work ranges from the legacy of Nagasaki to the student riots of the sixties. His photographs combine social documentary with a search for personal identity, a quest which concludes among the remote islanders of Okinawa.

Masahisa Fukase's epic series Crow adopts the universal symbol of the black bird as evil omen. The crow's somber presence shadows Fukase's journey to his birthplace on the northern island of Hokkaido, fusing private memories to a darker, national heritage.

Daido Moriyama uncovers the malice lurking in the alleys and backstreets of Tokyo. With his confrontational, highly graphic style, Moriyama reveals the overpowering density of life in modern Japan.

In the accompanying text, Mark Holborn creates his own picture of Japan's creative climate, one in which audacious exploration crashes against a legacy of tradition and refinement. He provides previously undocumented links between the photographers and other leading Japanese artists of our time, such as filmmaker Nagisa Oshima, graphic designer Tadanori Yokoo, and dancer Tatsumi Hijikata.

Mark Holborn is an editor at Random House in London.

Masahisa Fukase was born in 1934 and published his first book Homo Ludence in 1971. His work was included in the exhibition New Japanese Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1974. Much of a long narrative series of "Crow" was included in his book Yokho (1978). Many of the photographs were exhibited in Neue Fotografie Aus Japan in 1976 and Japan: A Self Portrait at the International Center of Photography, New York, in 1979.

Eikoh Hosoe was born in 1933 and established his reputation as a leading Japanese photographer following the publication of his first book Man and Woman in 1961. He received international attention with the publication of his portraits of the writer Yukio Mishima in Barakei: Killed by Roses in 1963. His other books include Kamaitachi (1968), Embrace (1971), and a recent study of the Spanish architect Gaudi (1984). He is professor of the Tokyo Institute of Polytechnics. A new edition of Barakei was published by Aperture in 1985.

Shomei Tomatsu was born in 1930 and has established a reputation internationally with a form of photography which is both intensely personal and documentary. His first book 11:02 Nagasaki (1966) revealed his extraordinary vision. His work forms a remarkable document of postwar Japan and has influenced many Japanese photographers. His books The Pencil of the Sun (1979) and Sparkling Winds (1979) reveal his interest in the island communities of Okinawa. His work has been included in many international exhibitions and a major retrospective of his work was held in Graz, Austria, in 1984.