The Master of Masters is back

Hosoe Eikoh returns to OCHRE SPACE with Kamaitachi

OCHRE SPACE presents Kamaitachi, an exhibition by Hosoe Eikoh, opening on 29 September at 18:30 and on view until 24 October 2026.

The exhibition brings together thirteen photographs from Kamaitachi, selected and arranged specifically for the eight walls of OCHRE SPACE. Rather than reproducing the sequence of the celebrated photobook, the exhibition proposes a new reading inspired by the legend that gives the work its name.

In Japanese tradition, kamaitachi refers both to sudden cuts appearing on the skin, seemingly caused by the wind, and to the invisible creature believed to inflict them. Often imagined as a weasel with sickle-shaped claws inhabiting a whirlwind. The creature arrives, wounds and disappears, leaving only the mark behind.

The photographic series began as a journey. In September 1965, Hosoe travelled with Hijikata Tatsumi, a founding figure of ankoku butoh, to the village of Tashiro in Akita. The project continued in Tokyo and, in its final phase, in the fields near Mount Tsukuba in 1968.

Across the photographs, Hijikata moves through villages, interiors and open landscapes, involving children and adults in improvised actions. Humour and unease coexist throughout the work. A tension already present in the title of the 1968 Nikon Salon exhibition, which began with the words “A tremendously tragic comedy.”

The photographs were published as Kamaitachi in 1969, in a landmark volume designed by Tanaka Ikkō, in which the images are concealed behind blue folding pages and revealed one by one through the reader’s gesture. At OCHRE SPACE, that experience changes: the images remain visible on the walls, and the visitor moves physically between them.

Opening
29 September 2026 · 18:30

29 September — 24 October 2026
Wednesday to Saturday
15:00 — 18:30

OCHRE SPACE
Rua da Bica do Marquês, 31-A
Lisbon

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