Nobuyoshi Araki (*1940)
Untitled (Self-portrait), Japan, Tokyo, 1985
The »mame-otoko« (bean man) is a historical element of shunga that first appeared as a stylistic device in the genre in 1712. It is the figure of a small, silent observer who witnesses the erotic scenes in the picture. The bean man is said to be a citizen of Edo (today's Tokyo) who wants to study the sexual life there in detail. To do so, he receives a miracle pill from the god of love that makes him immortal and young, but also shrinks him to the size of a bean. And so he wanders about observing the love life of Japan.
Araki resurrects the motif of the »mame-otoko« in the photographic present by staging himself in his settings - as in this image, in which he deliberately places himself in the corner as a silent observer.
Gelatin silver print on baryta, print date: 2005
Image dimensions 32,1 x 40,3 cm (32,1 x 40,3 inch)
Object dimensions 35,5 x 42,9 cm (35,5 x 42,9 inch)
Mounting, Framing Mounted in black wooden frame c. 50 x 60 cm (included in the price)
Condition
Double weight paper, semi-matte surface
Annotations
Signed by the photographer in pencil on the reverse
Literature
Nobuyoshi Araki, Araki. Tokyo Lucky Hole, Taschen: Cologne 1997; Nobuyoshi Araki, Self-Life-Death, London: Phaidon 2005, p. 430/31.
Prints / Japanese Photography / Akt /
Untitled 1997
From the series »Eros - Love in Winter«
Gelatin silver print 2009