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The birth of Happy End’s debut album, a historical masterpiece of Japanese music

Mike Nogami’s photobook “Yudemen” is a record of the birth of one of the most important postwar masterpieces in Japanese music – Happy End’s self-titled debut album (often nicknamed “Yudemen”).
Nogami, who became friends with Happy End (and later Yellow Magic Orchestra) member Haruomi Hosono at university, was able to photograph the recording sessions in the spacious Aoi Studio in Tokyo on April 10 and 11, 1970. Presented with captions that point out details and add invaluable context, Nogami’s images follow band members Shigeru Suzuki, Takashi Matsumoto, Eiichi Ohtaki, Haruomi Hosono and the engineers at the studio as they created a kind of sound that had not previously been unknown in Japan. In addition to the studio session, “Yudemen” photo sessions with individual band members (such as Haruomo Hosono at home) and a Happy End gig in front of the Shibuya Seibu building in May 1970. Between chapters, Nogami offers his own perspective of the band’s coming-into-being. The book concludes with an interview with Happy End member Shigeru Suzuki, who also supervised the creation of this book.

All texts included in Japanese and English translation.