Still Life with Black Hair--Portrait of Sayoko Yamaguchi and Light (1949-2007)

Still Life with Black Hair--Portrait of Sayoko Yamaguchi and Light (1949-2007)

Sayoko Yamaguchi was born in Yokohama in 1949. She studied design at the Sugino Gakuen Dressmaker Academy in Tokyo and began her career as a model. In the early 1970s, she was selected as an advertising model for Shiseido, and quickly rose to prominence.

At the time, Japan was in the midst of a period of rapid economic growth, and after the success of the 1970 World Exposition in Osaka, Japan was gaining international confidence. At the same time, however, the Western-oriented values that had prevailed since Japan's postwar recovery were wavering, and society was searching for a uniquely Japanese sense of beauty. It was in the midst of these turbulent times that Sayoko Yamaguchi emerged.

With her clear black bob, long slit eyes, and mysterious, almost expressionless appearance, she embodied an oriental beauty that was completely different from the "Western image of beauty. In the Shiseido campaign, her presence, with its innocence and hidden strength, attracted attention as a new image of Japanese women.

The Shiseido campaign was supported by photographer Isamitsu Yokosuka. Yokosuka recognized the beauty of Sayoko Yamaguchi's silence and accentuated her mystery with a unique photographic technique that utilized tranquil margins. His portraits of Sayoko transcended mere advertising photography and had the power of a painting that speaks to the viewer.

Their collaboration symbolized the golden age of visual culture in Japan in the 1970s. Yokosuka discovered in Yamaguchi the ability to "tell the story of the world without moving," and she responded by capturing in a single photograph all of the silence and passion, the stillness and dynamism.

Yokosuga eventually moved on to the Paris collections, where she modeled for world-famous designers such as Pierre Cardin and Jean Paul Gaultier. Dubbed the "Fairy from the Orient," she has earned an unshakeable international reputation. At a time when the Western fashion world was becoming increasingly interested in Asia, Sayoko Yamaguchi became a symbol of this interest.

However, in the late 1970s, as consumer culture exploded in Japan, she gradually began to feel uncomfortable with her own existence being consumed by fashion and advertising. Refusing to remain a mere fashion model, she expanded her activities to include acting, butoh dancing, and directing.

In her later years, she came to the artistic idea of "interacting with the world through the body," and became devoted to stage and video expression. 58 years old, she passed away suddenly in 2007, but even after her death, her works have been repeatedly retrospectively shown in exhibitions such as the "Sayoko Exhibition," and her presence quietly lives on in the Japanese aesthetic.

Sayoko Yamaguchi and Isamitsu Yokosuka. The quiet revolution woven by these two artists continues to shine a ray of light amidst the murmurs of the times.
That light continues to bloom in the depths of our memories, clad in the stillness of their black hair.