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Sasuke
Après la monographie sur l’ensemble de son travail, cet ouvrage est consacré à la série emblématique de Masahisa Fukase autour de ses deux chats, Sasuke et Momoe, mêlant photographies iconiques et inédites.
En 1977, Fukase tourne son objectif vers son nouveau compagnon : Sasuke. Entouré de félins depuis l’enfance, il décide avec l’arrivée de ce nouveau chaton d’en faire un sujet photographique à part entière, fasciné par cette créature pleine de vie nommée d’après un ninja légendaire. À son grand désarroi, Sasuke disparaît après une dizaine de jours et le photographe placarde une centaine d’affichettes de son chat perdu (celles reprises sur la couverture de l’ouvrage) dans son quartier. Une personne lui ramène son chat mais ce n’est pas Sasuke, peu importe il l’accueille avec tout autant d’affection. Un an plus tard, il prend un second chat, surnommée Momoe, qui entrera dans le cadre elle aussi. Fukase ne se lassera pas de photographier leurs jeux, qui deviendront un véritable terrain d’expérimentation visuel sans limites. Il s’agit bien ici, comme souvent dans son œuvre, d’une forme de projection du photographe dans son sujet. Le chat, compagnon fidèle qui ne le quitte pas, prend la place de sa femme, éternel chagrin d’amour, représenté plus tard par les emblématiques corbeaux fuyants.
Ses chats ont fait l’objet de plusieurs livres de son vivant. Tomo Kosuga, directeur des archives Fukase, s’est replongé dans ce corpus d'images afin de concevoir cet ouvrage comme l’aboutissement d’une série de publications dédiées à ses félins.
En 1977, Fukase tourne son objectif vers son nouveau compagnon : Sasuke. Entouré de félins depuis l’enfance, il décide avec l’arrivée de ce nouveau chaton d’en faire un sujet photographique à part entière, fasciné par cette créature pleine de vie nommée d’après un ninja légendaire. À son grand désarroi, Sasuke disparaît après une dizaine de jours et le photographe placarde une centaine d’affichettes de son chat perdu (celles reprises sur la couverture de l’ouvrage) dans son quartier. Une personne lui ramène son chat mais ce n’est pas Sasuke, peu importe il l’accueille avec tout autant d’affection. Un an plus tard, il prend un second chat, surnommée Momoe, qui entrera dans le cadre elle aussi. Fukase ne se lassera pas de photographier leurs jeux, qui deviendront un véritable terrain d’expérimentation visuel sans limites. Il s’agit bien ici, comme souvent dans son œuvre, d’une forme de projection du photographe dans son sujet. Le chat, compagnon fidèle qui ne le quitte pas, prend la place de sa femme, éternel chagrin d’amour, représenté plus tard par les emblématiques corbeaux fuyants.
Ses chats ont fait l’objet de plusieurs livres de son vivant. Tomo Kosuga, directeur des archives Fukase, s’est replongé dans ce corpus d'images afin de concevoir cet ouvrage comme l’aboutissement d’une série de publications dédiées à ses félins.
- GenresPhotographyJapanArt
187 pages, Hardcover
First published June 24, 2021
73 people want to read
About the author
Masahisa Fukase
22 books14 followersMasahisa Fukase (Hokkaido, 1934–2012) is considered one of the most radical and experimental photographers of the post-war generation in Japan. He would become world-renowned for his photographic series and subsequent publication Karasu (English title: Ravens, 1975 – 1985), which is widely celebrated as a photographic masterpiece. And yet the larger part of his oeuvre remained largely inaccessible for over two decades. In 1992 a tragic fall had left the artist with permanent brain damage, and it was only after his death in 2012 that the archives were gradually disclosed. Since then a wealth of material has surfaced that had never been shown before.
Fukase worked almost exclusively in series, some of which came about over the course of several decades. The works combine to form a remarkable visual biography of one of the most original photographers of his time. Fukase incorporated his own life experiences of loss, love, loneliness, and depression into his work in a surprisingly playful manner. His images are personal and highly intimate: over the years, his wife Yoko, his dying father, and his beloved cat Sasuke regularly featured in sometimes comical, at other times sombre visual narratives. Towards the end of this working life, the photographer increasingly turned the camera on himself. The vast number of performative self-portraits (precursors to today’s ubiquitous selfie) testifies to the singular, almost obsessive way that the artist related to his surroundings – and to himself.
Though Fukase has become almost synonymous with his atmospheric black-and-white Ravens, his buoyant abstractions in color, giant Polaroids, and wildly painted selfies reveal the artist’s inexhaustible resourcefulness and versatility. Work for Fukase rarely stopped after taking a photograph, as is evidenced by the experimental ways in which the artist presented his work – in print or as exhibitions – during his lifetime.
Fukase was born in the town of Hokkaido, Japan, in 1934, the son of a successful local studio photographer. He graduated from Nihon University College of Art’s Photography Department in 1956 and became a freelance photographer in 1968 following brief stints at the Nippon Design Center and Kawade Shobo Shinsha Publishers.
His work has been exhibited widely at institutions such as MoMA, New York, the Oxford Museum of Modern Art, the Foundation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, and the Victoria & Albert Museum. His work is held in major collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and The Getty Museum. He is also the winner of prizes including the 2nd Ina Nobuo Award, as well as the Special Award at the 8th Higashikawa Photography Awards.
Fukase worked almost exclusively in series, some of which came about over the course of several decades. The works combine to form a remarkable visual biography of one of the most original photographers of his time. Fukase incorporated his own life experiences of loss, love, loneliness, and depression into his work in a surprisingly playful manner. His images are personal and highly intimate: over the years, his wife Yoko, his dying father, and his beloved cat Sasuke regularly featured in sometimes comical, at other times sombre visual narratives. Towards the end of this working life, the photographer increasingly turned the camera on himself. The vast number of performative self-portraits (precursors to today’s ubiquitous selfie) testifies to the singular, almost obsessive way that the artist related to his surroundings – and to himself.
Though Fukase has become almost synonymous with his atmospheric black-and-white Ravens, his buoyant abstractions in color, giant Polaroids, and wildly painted selfies reveal the artist’s inexhaustible resourcefulness and versatility. Work for Fukase rarely stopped after taking a photograph, as is evidenced by the experimental ways in which the artist presented his work – in print or as exhibitions – during his lifetime.
Fukase was born in the town of Hokkaido, Japan, in 1934, the son of a successful local studio photographer. He graduated from Nihon University College of Art’s Photography Department in 1956 and became a freelance photographer in 1968 following brief stints at the Nippon Design Center and Kawade Shobo Shinsha Publishers.
His work has been exhibited widely at institutions such as MoMA, New York, the Oxford Museum of Modern Art, the Foundation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, and the Victoria & Albert Museum. His work is held in major collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and The Getty Museum. He is also the winner of prizes including the 2nd Ina Nobuo Award, as well as the Special Award at the 8th Higashikawa Photography Awards.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 13, 2026
عرفت عن المصور من بوست ع فيسبوك بالصدفة وعجني الصور بتاعته ف قولت أستعير الكتب المتاحة عنه في المكتبة
الكتاب عن مجموعة صور للقط اللي عند المصور
الصور لطيفة ولكني مش من محبي القطط 😄
هصور الكتاب كله ع قناة عن الفن ع اليوتيوب لو حد مهتم like & subscribe 👇🙏
3nelfn@
وبصور عامة الكتب اللي بستعيرها من المكتبة ع انستجرام 👇
mai .designer92@
الكتاب عن مجموعة صور للقط اللي عند المصور
الصور لطيفة ولكني مش من محبي القطط 😄
هصور الكتاب كله ع قناة عن الفن ع اليوتيوب لو حد مهتم like & subscribe 👇🙏
3nelfn@
وبصور عامة الكتب اللي بستعيرها من المكتبة ع انستجرام 👇
mai .designer92@
April 17, 2024
This guy gets it!!!! Meow!!
December 18, 2025
A 200-page book full of cat photos? YES, PLEASE!!!! Best photobook in the whole entire world. I don’t think any other photographer could ever take Fukase’s place as my favorite.
January 6, 2025
[The pure experience of love]
"As Fukase himself said, he was most interested in photographing people to whom he was close.
"My moterial," he wrote, "always starts with what
is nearest, with the people I can just reach out and touch." However, his artistic impulse was also driven by something deep in his unconscious, which once unleashed ran entirely out of control. The people he was photographing would end up finding his behaviour overwhelming, even monstrous, and eventually, one by one, they abandoned him. The one presence that did not leave him, and stayed with him through thick and thin, gazing back at him unflinchingly, were his cats."
There is no love that surpasses the love between a cat and their owner, as Fukase also said "I wanted to photograph the love that I saw there."
This is a very heartwarming collection of pictures, capturing every single detail, and what is love but observing and noticing? especially the little things, the little details.
"As Fukase himself said, he was most interested in photographing people to whom he was close.
"My moterial," he wrote, "always starts with what
is nearest, with the people I can just reach out and touch." However, his artistic impulse was also driven by something deep in his unconscious, which once unleashed ran entirely out of control. The people he was photographing would end up finding his behaviour overwhelming, even monstrous, and eventually, one by one, they abandoned him. The one presence that did not leave him, and stayed with him through thick and thin, gazing back at him unflinchingly, were his cats."
There is no love that surpasses the love between a cat and their owner, as Fukase also said "I wanted to photograph the love that I saw there."
This is a very heartwarming collection of pictures, capturing every single detail, and what is love but observing and noticing? especially the little things, the little details.
February 4, 2022
amo amo a sasuke el gatito aventurero 🥺💙
October 24, 2023
A photographic love letter to cats
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews