Homo Ludens

Homo Ludens — Masahisa Fukase's Debut Photobook, Reprinted by Akaaka Art Publishing (2025)

First published in 1971 by Chuokoronsha under the Japanese title Yugi, Homo Ludens is Masahisa Fukase's debut photobook — a document of his earliest sustained photographic work, assembled from series made across more than a decade. This 2025 reprint, issued by AKAAKA Art Publishing, restores the complete original to print for the first time in over fifty years. It is part of a broader catalogue of Japanese Photobooks available here.

The book was edited by Shoji Yamagishi, then editor at Camera Mainichi, and is structured in six chapters. Each represents a distinct photographic series from the 1960s, and together they establish the tonal and formal range that would define Fukase's subsequent career.

The Six Chapters

• Slaughter — Photographs made between 1961 and 1963 at a slaughterhouse in Shibaura. Among Fukase's earliest known bodies of work.
• Congratulations — A record of the early period of Fukase's marriage to his wife, Yoko.
• Frolic — Images from Shinjuku in the summer of 1968, focused on underground youth culture.
• Memento — One of Fukase's earliest known works, concerned with his first marriage, to Yukiyo.
• Mother — Made in 1963, in which Fukase directed Yoko and her mother into unusual poses.
• Music — A quieter, more domestic series depicting life with Yoko, her mother, and a Siamese cat in an apartment complex.

This Edition

The 2025 reprint reproduces all photographs and texts from the original 1971 edition. The design gives particular attention to the relationship between image and surrounding negative space — a considered formal decision rather than a neutral presentation. Two essays are included in both Japanese and English: one by Shoji Yamagishi, originally published in the 1971 edition, and one by Nada Inada. This volume sits alongside other titles in the Photography & Photobooks section of the catalogue.