Hiroh Kikai is renowned for his extensive Persona series, which features portraits of people taken at Sensoji Temple in Asakusa, Tokyo. This exhibition marks the first public showing of a total of 25 works, including valuable vintage prints of Kikai’s images of Tamasaburo Bando V shot in 1976, before he achieved recognition as a professional photographer, along with modern prints carefully selected from surviving negatives.
This exhibition provides a rare opportunity to see the young Tamasaburo Bando in roles such as Lady Macbeth (a legendary performance still remembered today) and in Yukio Mishima’s Modern Noh Plays, while tracing the vision that would culminate in Persona, now synonymous with the work of Hiroh Kikai, and appreciating anew the depth of his art.