Product Description

Japanese photographer and visual artist Murata creates highly detailed photographic stagings which evocatively depict nude models as though they were characters in an erotic fairytale. His enchanting models blithely shed their clothing and reveal their gorgeous nude bodies. What Murata strives to illustrate with these young girls is the image of the hime: an ancient Japanese word which can denote both a feeling of awe and a yearning for women. The conventional meaning of the word hime is noble princess. His second photobook too is a virtuosic and fantastic journey into erotic dream worlds.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #551816 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-10
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: German, English, Japanese, French
• Binding: Hardcover
• 84 pages

Customer Reviews

The Fetishistic Sexuality Will Blow Your Mind!
This beautiful book picks up where Murata's first book Japanese Princess leaves off. The stunning beauty of his Japanese nymphs is utterly enchanting. But in Princess of Desire we are made privy to a vision that is deeper and perhaps a bit darker. The maidens are lovely, and the hand-painted prints are stellar, almost fantastical, but the fetishistic sexuality is paramount. Urination and even defecation play a role here. But the central feeling here is the posturing of these young women as lavish participants in sexual rituals. And it's quite moving. This is a dreamworld unlike any other and Murata is in full command of his artistic vision throughout this work.

Princess of Desire will amaze all fans of nude, fetish, and art photography and except for a few edgy scenarios, the imagery contained within is absolutely breathtaking. The artist from Osaka, Japan does it again.

the fall and the coming of sin...
If you have an appreciation of Japanese culture but would not claim to be an expert - more of an interested observer - a happy amateur - this is for you.
If you also have an appreciation of Japanese women and the way they express their sexuality - attractive, arousing the voyeur in you - this is for you.
If you adore the way the Japanese - both male and female - embrace and practice their sexual preferences(which may ,sometimes, seem so eccentric) - this is for you.
If you were inspired in your early years by Shunga woodcut prints from the Edo period and your interest has been rekindled,refreshed and re-ignited from time to time by your discoveries of the new wave Shunga artists - admirably represented by the likes of Nobuyoshi Araki and now Ken-ichi Murata - this is for you.
Even though these two guys are photographers - they are contemporary artists using the medium of their times to re-interpret,re-imagine the allure, and the erotic sensuality, of the female form.
If in their work they cover off most things that you adore in women - their reserve, their innocence, their reluctance and their pleasure, their pain - this is for you.
Murata captures all in his work - his studies - here centered loosely around folklore and fairytales.
His photographs are brilliantly hand-colored black and white studies of innocence compromised and corrupted.
If you think this is all about elusiveness - then this is for you.
If you think this is about temptation, the fall and the coming of sin - it's for you.
As it is for me.