Purple Magazine
— Purple #43 S/S 2025
The Tokyo Diary Issue
hajime sawatari
portrait
by CHIKASHI SUZUKI
Born in 1940, the same year as Nobuyoshi Araki and Kishin Shinoyama, Hajime Sawatari, 84, is a true professional photographer working in fashion and advertising photography, yet he is best known for his intimate female nudes. He took up photography as a ninth grader and learned how to use the camera from books. An admirer of Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson, he formed a group called Humanité and presented his work to magazine publishers. Soon after, he began photographing jazz musicians in Japan, supporting himself with magazine assignments. Early on, he began publishing fanzines of his photographs and selling them. Today, his many photobooks are collector’s items for their subtle visual poetry. The pictures featured here — from his book Hysteric Ten, produced by Hysteric Glamour — explore erotic shunga themes, including a dialogue between an octopus and a nude woman in the throes of ecstasy.
ALL PICTURES BY HAJIME SAWATARI, HYSTERIC TEN, 2004
