Three Great Photographers Of Yesterday

When looking into the past for photographs of Japanese men wearing the fundoshi, three photographers come to mind: Tamotsu Yato, Kuro Haga, and Kurihama Yozo.

I want to share a brief profile of each artist. All three too beautiful and accomplished photos of men in homoerotic scenarios or displaying their physiques; sometimes nude but often dressed in fundoshi or brief underwear.

Blue laws of the time meant that penises, if shown at all, must be blurred or censored. These photographers found that leaving their models semi-clad could reveal their arousal and raw sensuality, while skirting the censorship rules.

Tamotsu Yato (矢頭 保, 1928-1973)

The first name to come to mind is Tamotsu Yato. His association with author Yukio Mishima has generated considerable interest, but Yato was a highly accomplished artist on his own. He was also a long-term romantic partner of Meredith Weatherby, an expatriate American publisher and translator of Mishima's works into English. Unfortunately Yato had a falling out with Weatherby in later life.

Yato was a heavy smoker with a heart defect, and died early and alone. Relatives who denounced his homosexuality seized all his belongings after his death, likely destroying his negatives. Yato's family refused to allow reprints of his three highly influential photo books (Naked Festival, Young Samurai: Bodybuilders Of Japan, and Otoko), however copies of the first Japanese and English printings can still be found with a little effort. They are gorgeous volumes.

Kuro Haga (波賀九郎,  1920-2002)

Haga is best known for publishing Bon Magazine, a series of 16 bound volumes that began in the 1973. Like Yato, Kuro Haga's works featured muscular and masculine men posing outdoors or occasionally in bondage. His work is an exciting mixture of color and monochrome photography, often more explicit in its depiction of male sexuality than Yato, but still within the limits of Japan's censors. Copies of Bon are not easy to purchase outside of Japan, but occasionally turn up on book dealer's websites.

Kurihama Yozo (栗浜陽三)

I only know of a single photo book by Yozo, Kon'Yu: Poetry Of Loincloth, published in 1973. There are strong similarities to the works of both Yato and Haga. Well built men pose at the seaside, at temples and shrines. Their tautly-knitted physiques are framed by fundoshi. Of the traditional loincloth, Yozo says "I don't think there is any clothes that can express the beauty of a man's body so simply. It may even be modern." Information about Yozo is scant. I'd like to learn more about him.

Have you got a favorite photographer who is working with fundoshi today?  Who is helping express the poetry of this loincloth in the present day? I'd love to know your suggestions in the comments! It would be nice to do a feature post about contemporary fundoshi photography.