Araki. Tokyo Lucky Hole

Book Overview

It started in 1978 with an ordinary coffee shop near Kyoto. Word spread that the waitresses wore no panties under their miniskirts. Similar establishments popped up across the country. Men waited in line outside to pay three times the usual coffee price just to be served by a panty-free young woman. Within a few years, a new craze took hold: the no-panties "massage" parlor. Increasingly bizarre services followed, from fondling clients through holes in coffins to commuter-train fetishists. One particularly popular destination was a Tokyo club called "Lucky Hole" where clients stood on one side of a plywood partition, a hostess on the other. In between them was a hole big enough for a certain part of the male anatomy. Taking the Lucky Hole as his title, Nobuyoshi Araki captures Japan's sex industry in full flower, documenting in more than 800 photos the pleasure-seekers and providers of Tokyo's Shinjuku neighborhood before the February 1985 New Amusement Business Control and Improvement Act put a stop to many of the country's sex locales. Through mirrored walls, bed sheets, the bondage and the orgies, this is the last word on an age of bacchanalia, infused with moments of humor, precise poetry, and questioning interjections.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3836556383
• ISBN13: 9783836556385
• Release Date: March 2015
• Publisher: TASCHEN
• Length: 704 Pages
• Weight: 3.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 6.0" x 1.8"

Customer Reviews

so sad 700 pages all black and white

who would have expected that !

Good samples of Araki's work

Good samples of Araki's work. The works in this book reveal away of realistic life, a pure exposition of human's desire from Japan.

Araki's Masterpiece

The man is a genius. Take the cover photo. He didn't just throw a [woman] in a shower and snap some photos--though that may be a salutory idea. Compare it to the companion photo in the sample photos. The light and therefore the shadows, have moved, the towel has moved, and in both pictures the contours of the light, the shadow, and the folds of the towel track and repeat lines created by the model's pose. There are three circles in the cover photo--the shower hose, the model's [figure], and her face, and the cascade of water seems to close the circle created by the shower hose. Throughout the book are amazing photos like this, with stunning elements of light and composition, although there is a reason why this one is on the cover. You occasionally see Araki in the photos, although never without his sunglasses (or in one case, a mask). If you have any interest in photography at all, you should buy this book.

Great book!

This book is a great collection of Nobuyoshi Araki's Photographs. With this book one can take a peek into Tokyo's night life, through quite provocative B/W photos. The only disadvantage of this book is the image proportions (14X@)cm. I would prefer it in A4 Format.

I've never seen sex workers like this before.

These women look totally fresh and happy, I kept having to ask myself, "Do they REALLY look happy, or are they covering up their true feelings?" But man, they sure look like they are having a good time. I envied them! Even the men look kind of sweet and happy. Go figure.