Barakei (Killed by Roses)
With its complex, quasi-baroque design by Kōhei Sugiura, this lauded work by Eikoh Hosoe explores themes of birth, death, sex, entrapment, and isolation. It features the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima as an aging hipster antihero who acts out his erotic life before Hosoe’s camera. With its references to the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian and its high-contrast printing style, the collaborative publication caused an international stir in Japan and the United States during the early years of protests against the Vietnam War.
Artwork Details
- Title: Barakei (Killed by Roses)
- Artist: Eikoh Hosoe (Japanese, born Yamagata, 1933)
- Author: Mishima Yukio
- Date: 1963
- Classification: Books
- Credit Line: Gift of Mary Ann and Frank B. Arisman, in celebration of the Museum's 150th Anniversary, 2020
- Object Number: JFMPL.Arisman.2020.85
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
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