Miyako Ishiuchi - Club & Courts Yokosuka Yokohama

Miyako Ishiuchi
Club & Courts Yokosuka Yokohama

Published by Sokyusha, 2007
Size: 27.4 × 23.1 cm
88 Pages - 77 images
Softcover
Languages: English, Japanese
ISBN 978-4-86219-055-0

Grainy photographs taken in decaying bars, entertainment clubs, and other seedy locations in Yokosuka and Yokohama. Shot in the 1970s and 1980s, Ishiuchi captures the lost glamour, the alluring air of the forbidden, the smell of sex, but also the postwar exploitation, horror, and despair that lingered somewhere in these ruins. Over time, Ishiuchi felt his hatred transform into love and affection.

“In 1966, invited by a friend who was engaged to an American soldier, I visited the EM Club for the first time. The EM Club was an establishment that could only be entered if accompanied by a member of the American military. The three of us watched a movie, played the slot machines, and ate pizza at the restaurant. Although I don't remember the movie we saw, I do remember the footage shown just before the film. The image that caused me great unease was the American flag, filling the entire screen, waving. When the music started, the audience stood up and saluted the screen.
Lately, I have begun to feel that this disgust I felt then was mixed with a certain awkwardness: a new sensation for me, which merged into a mass of images and perhaps formed the energy that propelled me towards photography.
― excerpt from the afterword by Miyako Ishiuchi (included in the Japanese and English translations)