TOSHIO SAEKI / Chimushi

Toshio Saeki
Chimushi, 1996
Hardcover with illustrated dust jacket and original obi, 160 pages
30.5 × 22 cm
Treville, Tokyo

Condition: Near fine copy with the original illustrated dust jacket and obi intact. Light rubbing to the dust jacket with a minor bump to the upper corner; internally exceptionally clean with bright colours and a tight binding.

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First published in 1996, Chimushi is among Toshio Saeki's most celebrated late monographs, bringing together a substantial selection of the artist's meticulously rendered paintings from the 1980s and 1990s. Published by Treville at the height of renewed international interest in Saeki's work, the volume demonstrates the extraordinary precision of his line and the unsettling beauty of his imagery through vibrant full-colour reproductions.

Drawing equally from Edo-period ukiyo-e, Japanese folklore and the visual language of manga, Saeki constructs surreal narratives where eroticism, horror and dark humour exist in uneasy harmony. Ghosts, yokai, demons and ordinary people inhabit the same dreamlike world, transforming scenes of everyday life into psychologically charged tableaux that remain among the most distinctive images in post-war Japanese art.

A landmark publication on one of Japan's most influential underground artists, Chimushi is an essential reference for collectors of Japanese illustration, ero-guro, and post-war graphic culture.