8. Yuen no Onna (Captive Women in a Pleasure Garden) (New work)
Women in kimonos, who look as though they’ve been transported straight from an ukiyo-e picture, are often seen as Araki’s trademark. This is especially the case overseas, where this imagery represents something exotic and quintessentially Japanese. These latest works by Araki use not professional models, but rather amateur married women as their subjects. Here Araki tends to serve as a zegen figure, a man who captures women seeking to flee the pleasure quarters and sells them back, but looking at these images, we have to ask who the true captive in this situation is…
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Yuen no Onna (Captive Women in a Pleasure Garden), 1917
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Yuen no Onna (Captive Women in a Pleasure Garden), 1917