shashasha

A sumptuous celebration of a Japanese cinema icon

“Yu-Kon, Ken Takakura (“Melancholic Soul”)” is an eclectic, invigorating visual tribute to Ken Takakura, one of the biggest stars of postwar Japanese cinema and the most iconic male role model for the Showa generation. Graphic designer Tadanori Yokoo edited an impressive 370 pages using still photographs (mostly taken by Tsutomu Endo), private snapshots and professional photographs taken by artists as renowned as Eikoh Hosoe, Daido Moriyama, Yoshihiro Tatsuki or Kenji Ishiguro.

Originally, “Yu-Kon, Ken Takakura (“Melancholic Soul”)” was published in 1971 but never reached a single bookshop due to the publisher going bankrupt, an injunction by a movie production company and other reasons.
This phantom of a book stayed hidden from the world for more than 30 years before it was finally published in 2009 – in its original form but profiting from the latest advances in printing technology.

The book also includes an interview with Ken Takakura as well as several essays relating to the making of the book (all texts only included in Japanese).