Originally titled “Killed by Roses” in Japan, “Ba-ra-kei” is Eikoh Hosoe’s uncontestable masterpiece. This collaborative series features the nationalist author Yukio Mishima as both subject and symbol, captured in erotic and morbid tableaux shortly before his ritual suicide in 1970. Set within the kitschy, baroque interiors of Mishima’s Tokyo home, the photographs utilize high-contrast printing and surreal props to explore the “inner rhythm” of desire and mortality. This 1985 Aperture edition serves as the first major Western release of the project, including a preface by Mishima and an afterword by Mark Holborn.
