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A Light in The Darkness
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The Japanese photographer Eikoh Hosoe will always be closely identified with his compatriot, the novelist Yukio Mishima. Collected in the 1963 book
Ordeal by Roses
, Hosoe's intimate portraits of Mishimawith their air of sadomasochism and homoeroticismhave become iconic, and sprang from an artistic interest the two men shared in the grand themes of beauty and decay, love and hatred, life and death. But while Mishima became obsessed with the latter (famously committing
seppuku
in 1970), Hosoe was able to tame his darker promptings and channel his creativity toward life-affirming ends. He found satisfaction in teachingbecoming a professor at the Tokyo Institute...