?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500
TAMOTSU YATO (1928-1973)
Two photographs depicting Nobou Takemoto, who was crowned the 16th Mr. Japan in 1970. Silver prints, the images measuring 222x178 and 219x155 mm; 8 3/4x7 and 8 5/8x6 1/8 inches. 1971.
Yato was a self-taught photographer and a pioneer in Japanese homoerotic photography. In his early years he worked mostly as a dancer and actor, only picking up photography in the 1960s. Through his short career celebrating the male form he published three books of his photography: Young Samurai: Body Builders of Japan (1967); Naked Festival: A Photo-Essay (1968) and Otoko (1972). Throughout his artistic career he collaborated with the writer Yukio Mishima and was a long-term partner of the writer's translator, Meridith Weatherby. Yato was an important influence on the contemporary field of male eroticism in Japan.
