説明

I am pleased to announce the release of a photo album of Master Ikebukuro : Horitoshi The First. I, Keiichi KUWAI, the author and photographer, first came to Horitoshi The Firstin 1995, and since then, I have been a great supporter of Horitoshi The Firstfor nearly 30 years, both publicly and privately. Since then, I have been allowed to bring my camera to Horitoshi The First's workplace and take a lot of pictures. I was allowed to take many photos not only of his completed works, but also of scenes of his daily work, some of which were taken while he was drinking, and some of which were taken during his band performances. At the beginning of the year 2023, I started to work on this book with a sense of mission to preserve in an official album a number of the works of Horitoshi The First, which are truly worthy of being called first-class art. At the same time, we felt strongly that we wanted to help people overseas better understand traditional and authentic Japanese tattoos. I have also incorporated another theme of the Japanese people's deep-rooted ideas and senses of "Morura Manzo" and "Ya Million Gods" into this book. We hope that you will take a look at Horitoshi The Firstto see his amazing works.