Kill the Pig

by Masahisa Fukase

In 1961 Masahisa Fukase’s first solo exhibition Kill the Pig was held in Tokyo. The exhibition consisted of two series of one titled ‘Kill the Pig’ and another series titled ‘Naked’. The series ‘Kill the Pig’ featured photographs set in a slaughterhouse in Shibaura, Tokyo. Huge numbers of ravens also congregated there, drawn by the odour of raw meat, as the air resounded eerily with their cries. The series featured photographs in black and white and in colour. The colour shots were mostly reserved for the scenes showing blood and death. The other series exhibited was ‘Naked’, showing Fukase himself and his partner at the time, Yukiyo Kawakami, in various poses. There was one photograph in the exhibition that seemed very different from the rest, which was of a dead baby. This work was high-contrast and composed of two prints, one a positive, the other a negatieve, two black and white images in reverse, displayed adjacently. This baby was Fukase and Yukiyo’s first child, which had been still-born. In the exhibition, this work was prominently displayed, in a manner that all the other works arose from them. It seems that Fukase attempted to express something about the cruelty of the two poles of as a positive and a negative. In other words, the idea that death is an essential part of life, and life of death. This book comprises photographs that featured in that exhibition, now assembled as a single volume. With this book and Tomo Kosuga’s essay, light is cast on the works in the exhibition, which Kosuga considers to represent Fukase’s starting point in his photographic practice, and which for many decades languished in the shadows. (Text based on Kosuga’s essay) limited edition of 1000 numbered copies text by Tomo Kosuga (founder and director of Masahisa Fukase Archives) in Japanese and English (translation by Lucy North)

84 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2021

About the author

Masahisa 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.