Kinoko Hajime: Ichi-go Ichi-e (一期一会)

This amazing ”photo-essay-book” celebrates Kinoko’s 10th anniversary as a rope-artist. And what a decade it has been!

Both a retrospective, and packed with recent works, it features a lot of photos (all in color) – including some exploring the art of flower-arrangements, using the human body as the ”stem” . But, for an english-speaking audience, perhaps the biggest treat is that the whole book is bi-lingual. Kinoko comments on most of the photos, there is a long interview and reflections on his plural styles.

Excerpt from the preface:

”It has been 10 years since I began calling myself ‘Kinoko Hajime’. ‘Ichigo Ichie’ (a Japanese four letter idiom translated as ‘never again’ or ‘once in a lifetime’) is the title of the book, but Kinbaku is also ‘Ichigo Ichie’; you cannot tie the same more than once. The partner you are facing is different each time, and even if you were tying the same partner, you and their feelings will change every day, and the meaning behind the tie will transform as well…”

ISBN: 978-4-7769-1571-3

Publisher: Sanwa, 2016

Translation: Emi