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Masahisa Fukase’s Origin: Homo Ludens — Reawakened After Half a Century
Masahisa Fukase’s Homo Ludens (Yugi) — first published in 1971 as part of Chuo-koron-sha’s Contemporary Images series — marks the genesis of a singular and uncompromising photographic vision. Now, more than fifty years later, this seminal body of work returns in a newly reconfigured edition that invites us to revisit and reexamine the roots of Fukase’s profound exploration of intimacy, play, and mortality.
Edited by the legendary Shoji Yamagishi, Homo Ludens gathers photographs spanning over a decade — a foundational anthology from which Fukase’s later masterpieces would emerge. The book unfolds in six evocative chapters, each confronting the entanglements of life and death, connection and estrangement, through the artist’s relentless gaze:
— To (Slaughter): A harrowing juxtaposition of Yoko Wanibe, Fukase’s wife and muse, draped in a black cloak within a slaughterhouse — a haunting meditation on vulnerability and violence.
— Kotobuki (Congratulation): An intimate portrayal of Fukase’s early married life with Yoko, unfolding like a “private novel,” as raw as it is tender.
— Gi (Frolic): Scenes from Shinjuku’s underground culture, where Fukase wandered after leaving Yoko, capturing a restless youth in communal living — lives at the edge, in search of meaning.
— Mei (Memento): One of Fukase’s earliest photographic works, reflecting on the pregnancy of his former partner Yukiyo Kawakami — a visual memoir of love and impending loss.
— Haha (Mother) and Fu (Music): Intimate vignettes of Yoko and her mother, small yet potent studies of familial bonds.
Throughout Homo Ludens, Fukase relentlessly turns his lens on himself and those closest to him — lovers, family, friends — offering an unflinching inquiry into the human condition as a kind of play, where joy and cruelty, life and death, are inseparably entwined. The work becomes a theater of vulnerability, a stage where love, estrangement, and mortality perform their eternal dance.
This long-awaited reprint brings together all photographs and texts from the original, while introducing a redesigned visual structure that emphasizes the dialogue between image and space — an homage to the multilayered meaning of Homo Ludens (“Man the Player”). The re-edition reflects a timeless response to Fukase’s vision, amplifying its resonance for contemporary audiences.
Far beyond a historical artifact, Homo Ludens remains a vital, disquieting, and beautiful work — one that not only deepens our understanding of Fukase’s oeuvre but also challenges us to reconsider the very act of seeing, and what it means to live and play in a fragile world.
