Tamotsu Yato Day

Tamotsu Yato was a brilliant Japanese photographer who managed to produce some very homoerotic work in a culture where showing penises is generally not allowed.  (We will see two exceptions later in the set, so stay with me.)  We start with an image where we get just a hint of package.

 

Nobou Takemoto I

Tamotsu Yato took promotional photos of Japanese bodybuilders early in his career, both in the studio and in competition settings.  I'll post some of the latter in a future series, but today I will focus that part of the series on four photos he made of Nobou Takemoto, who was Mr. Japan 1970.  We start with a great derriere shot that shows Mr. Takemoto's stocky build.

 

Mystery

The hairy legs immediately grab our attention

and leave us wishing for a better view of his crotch.

 

Festival

Mr. Yato didn't just do studio work and bodybuilder promos.  He also photographed 

 Japanese cultural and religious festivals were nude and semi-nude men were numerous.

 

Nobou Takemoto II

Full frontal nudes are rare (and illegal) in modern Japanese photography, but Tamotsu Yato 

took two of Nobou Takemoto.  As far as I know, they were not published in Japan.

 

Unconventional

This unconventional pose is one of my favorites in today's series.

 

Yukio Mishima

Tamotsu Yato took several photos of the hypermasculine Yukio Mishima, a Japanes nationalist 

who committed suicide when his attempt to revive Japanes militarism failed.

 

1972

This striking 1972 photo was shot just a year before Tamotsu Yato's death.

 

Nobou Takemoto III

Our third photo of Nobou Takemoto is cropped in a way

that really accentuates the upper body.

 

Light

Tamotsu Yato pushed the light to the limit here, but he did it well.

 

Sturdy

I love the sturdy build of the model here.

 

Nobou Takemoto IV - A Repeat

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Tamotsu Yato

Japanese artist and photographer Tamotsu Yato took this photo of a well built model.

 

Do they have a “forbidden fruit” fable in Japanese folklore?

This one will probably give the tumblr censor bot a paroxysm of puritanical plenitude.

Our Tamotsu Yato G-rated posts are in some ways more erotic than the Rs.  This farmer in his fundoshi is a good example.

This is Yukio Mishima, a writer and Japanese nationalist who committed ritual suicide after a failed attempt to renew Japanese militarism.  Mishima, like Tamotsu, was homosexual.

I like the juxtaposition of the very masculine man with the doll.

Tamotsu Yato (1928-1973) was a gay Japanese photographer and occasional actor whose homoerotic photos of Japanese men in the 1960′s and 70′s were a rarity in the Japanese art scene of the time … and still rare even today.  So Wednesday will be Tamotsu Yato day.  Our R-rated (some just barely) posts begin with this derriere view.

This rather truncated picture is Mr. Japan of 1970, Takemoto Nobuo.

Touch of the samurai in this one, and the placement of the sword is rather suggestive.

It was illegal during Yato’s career to show a penis in Japan, and my source tells me that this photo was not published there, although it was privately shown.  This is a good example of a period during which Yato specialized in photos of Japanese body builders … and that squared off farm boy look.