subject limits if not precludes emotional connection
and hence empathy, creating in effect, images void
of intimacy. Similarly to Goldin and Joel-Peter
Witkin, who also work with erotic imagery, Araki’s
work seeks to balance the sublime and the obscene;
it is at once shocking and mysteriously tender. Over
the years, his bold, unabashed photographs have
been the object of censorship, especially in his
native Japan, a fact that has not diminished his
influence. Series have included images of gagged
and tied women wearing the traditional dress of
the kimono, ontatamimats in ariyokan(Japanese
inn). Although the women are often restrained and
silenced, the Japanese art of rope-tying,kinbaku,
differs from Western style bondage. Araki’s images
are also heir to the Japanese tradition of erotic art,
especiallyShunga, the erotic painting from the Edo
period. They combine ecstasy and death, a passion
for life and a melancholy awareness of the finite-
ness of life.
Flowers have featured in several of Araki’s pro-
jects of the 1990s and are appropriate subjects for
his fusion of eros and death. Araki’s photographs
make explicit that flowers are reproductive organs
and emblems of the consummation of love. How-
ever, Araki’s flower studies are hardly sentimental;
the flowers petals are often painted with garish
colors and seem past their prime.
The city of Tokyo is another of Araki’s chosen
subjects although he claims only an interest in the
urban areas he frequents and knows well, such as
Shinjuku, Tokyo’s entertainment district with its
nightclubs, strip joints, and seedy hotels. People
often seem sad and lonely in Araki’s Tokyo. He
claims that ‘‘photography is synonymous with
what relates to me. I don’t go somewhere simply
to take photographs.’’
Araki has edited most of his own books, and has
gained a strong and growing following in the United
States and Europe. He has formed friendships with
other great photo-diarists such as Robert Frank and
Nan Goldin, and in 1995 Araki published a book
with Goldin (Tokyo Love). He has also delved into
stylized fashion photography. In 2002, the German
publisherTaschenreleasedalavishtributetoAraki’s
work—an enormous and unique (numbered and
signed) book featuring 1000 images, with a print run
of only 2500 copies. In 2003 the photographer pub-
lishedAraki by Araki: The Photographer’s Personal
Selection 1963–2002—the most comprehensive col-
lection of his work, gathering images from each year.
DANIELPalmerSeealso:Erotic Photography; Goldin, Nan; Photo-
graphy in Japan
Biography
Born Tokyo, Japan, May 25 1940. Graduated from Engineer-
ing Department of Chiba University with a major in
Photography and Filmmaking, 1963. Started work at
Dentsu advertising company, 1963. Received prize for
Satchin, a collection of photographs, 1964. First exhibi-
tion, 1965. Privately publishedSentimental Journey, 1971.
Left Dentsu in 1972 to work as a freelancer. Helped found
the Workshop School of Photography, 1974. Opened the
Nobuyoshi Araki School, 1976. Formed the Araki Lim-
ited Stock Company, 1981. Established Photo Clinic,- Established AT Room, 1988. Lives and works in
Tokyo, Japan.
Selected Individual Exhibitions
1965 Satchin and Mabo, Shinjuku Station Building, Tokyo,
Japan
1966 Subway, Mitsubishi Denki Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1967 Ginza, Mitsubishi Denki Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1973 Flowers in Ruins, Shimizu Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1976 Yoko, My Love, Nikon Salon, Tokyo, Japan
1984 A World of Girls, Zeit-Photo Salon, Tokyo, Japan
1986 Araki’s Tokyo Erotomania Diary, Zeit-Photo Salon,
Tokyo, Japan
1987 Arakism: 1967–1987, Zeit-Photo Salon, Tokyo, Japan
1990 Towards Winter: Tokyo, A City Heading for Death,
Egg Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo Lucky Hole, Apt Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1993 Erotos, Parco Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1995 Journale Intime, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contem-
porain, Paris, FranceARAKI, NOBUYOSHI
Noboyoshi Araki, Tokyo Cube #102.
[Collection Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, partial
and promised gift from the Howard and Donna Stone
Collection, Photograph#Museum of Contemporary Art,
Chicago,#Nobuyoshi Araki, Courtesy of Yoshiko Isshiki
Office]