Kamaitachi, a 1968 collaboration between photographer Eikoh Hosoe and Tatsumi Hijikata, founder of Butoh—a postwar avant-garde dance form known for its slow, expressive movements and exploration of taboo themes—was created in Japan’s Tohoku countryside and Tokyo’s urban districts.
Inspired by Hosoe’s childhood experience of wartime evacuation, themes of memory, identity, and cultural loss are vividly reimagined through Hijikata’s emotionally charged, improvised performances. Staged as an avant-garde visual fable, the project examines the tension between ancestral tradition and emerging modernity, symbolized by the Kamaitachi—a folkloric spirit disrupting rural life.
Visually, the series is defined by its high-contrast black-and-white images and dynamically composed frames. Hijikata appears as a spectral figure, cavorting through fields and among villagers, captured in dynamic improvisations that blur the line between documentary and ritual. The surreal and theatrical tone emerges through images that oscillate between lighthearted play and ominous embodiment, imbuing the landscape with psychological charge.
Technically speaking, the photographs are gelatin silver prints, later presented in a now-renowned photobook. Hosoe shot in a spontaneous, guerrilla-like manner. His subjective documentary approach staged memory and myth, making the camera a tool of inner excavation rather than neutral observation.
Upon release, Kamaitachi won Japan’s Ministry of Culture prize and was lauded for its narrative and emotional intensity. It is widely regarded as a masterwork of Japanese photobook art, and it helped redefine photography’s role within avant-garde practice. Hosoe’s blending of performance, folklore, and formal rigor influenced later collectives like Provoke and established his influence within postwar visual culture.
