Masahisa Fukase’s 'Yoko' Returns in a New Light
Published by Akaaka, the new edition includes an essay penned by the muse herself.
Summary
- Akaaka has released a republished version of Masahisa Fukase’s 1978 photobook, Yoko.
- In addition to a newly-designed cover, this latest edition includes the oversight of and an essay by Yoko Miyoshi, the book’s muse.
- Through a series of delicate images, Yoko chronicles the lifespan of a relationship and a love that grows sour, including Fukase’s famed Through Window (1974) series.
Masahisa Fukase’s Through Window (1974) chronicles a love on the brink of collapse. Over a series of precious albeit obsessive captures, the series tells the story of the decade-long union between Fukase and his then-wife, Yoko Miyoshi, framed through the window of their Tokyo apartment. Each image sees Miyoshi framed through the window of their apartment; luminous and distant, she’s often caught mid-step, mid-thought and always out of reach. “He only looked at me through the lens,” Yoko once recalled, calling her former partner an “incurable egoist.” By 1976, their marriage ended.
Nearly 50 years after its original release, Fukase’s Yoko book is being reissued by Japanese publisher Akaaka – this time with the hand of the star herself. Reclaiming her image, this edition delves into the age-old complexities of the muse-artist dynamic, taking back a once all-encompassing gaze to offer a more nuanced take on one of photography’s greatest love stories.
The book not only captures a turning point for their relationship, but in Japanese postwar photography at large. In an era where many photographers sought to break from documentary traditions, Fukase’s pivot towards the intensely domestic informed a larger movement that strove toward emotional introspection and subjectivity.
Across its pages, Yoko traces the arc of a shared life, from honeymoon bliss and international adventures, and while their time as a couple came to an end, the two kept in contact. Miyoshi even made monthly trips to the hospital, while Fukase laid on his death bed. Even today, their story endures.
Akaaka wrote: “We hope that this Yoko, with its liberated scale and profound sensitivity, spreads its wings and takes flight once more, soaring freely into the present and resonating anew in our time.” Tender and hard-to-swallow at once, the book serves as a meditation on the cost of being seen and the painful clarity that only emerges in hindsight.
Yoko is now available via Akaaka for ¥6,500 JPY ($114 USD).
