Keijiro Kai - Clothed in Sunny Finery (B)

Keijiro Kai
Dressed in Sunny Finery

Published by Zen Foto Gallery, 2023
Size: 36.4 x 25.7 cm
52 pages, 27 images
Language: English, Japanese
Soft cover

Keijiro Kai's "Clothed in Sunny Finery" features dramatic photographs of traditional Japanese festivals in which crowds of naked men compete.

Taken at four different festivals, Kai's photographs capture the ordeal, frenzy, and wild chaos of these events from the inside. His photographs—immediate, raw compositions of flesh and skin—bring us closer to the participants. The goal of these festivals is to compete, individually or as a team, for tokens of good fortune. In Kai's photographs, these festivals become battles against fate and nature itself. And despite the competitive setting, there is a sense of community and unity amidst the naked exhaustion and roaring chaos.
“Clothed in Sunny Finery” includes essays by Akiyoshi Taniguchi and Chihiro Minato, as well as an afterword by the artist (all texts are in Japanese and English).

“If you think about it, there is nothing more terrifying than finding yourself naked in the dark. This is even more true in the middle of winter. You get goosebumps and you can't help but shiver. The only way to free yourself from this anxiety and fear is to gather with people who are experiencing the same circumstances and become one with them. Is there also a reversal of the fear of being touched at the heart of a group of naked people? ...
What the photographer encounters in the depths of darkness is the image of an ancient desire within us, long awaiting the moment of liberation. It is the desire of the skin—waiting deep within us—and the purest form of prayer in human beings.
– from Akiyoshi Taniguchi’s essay “Intoxication in the Act of Photography.”