Sento — Masayuki Yoshinaga, 2011, signed

Wrapped in pink cloth patterned with cherry blossoms and white rabbits, Sento is Masayuki Yoshinaga’s tender, voyeuristic homage to the culture of Japanese public bathhouses. Published in 2011 and designed by Satoshi Machiguchi, the book documents not just the sentō as architectural relic, but as a disappearing stage of human intimacy and ritual. Yoshinaga’s photographs render steam, tile, skin and signage with sensuous clarity—each frame an elegy to a space where bodies once met without pretense. Paired with a text by critic Minoru Shimizu, Sento moves beyond nostalgia to stage a quiet tension between observation and eroticism. The atmosphere is humid, private, and precise. This signed copy—rare in its original bunny-and-sakura furoshiki-style binding—is both a photobook and an object of cultural memory, recording the warmth of spaces now cooling into history.

Technical Sheet
Title: Sento
Artist / Author: Masayuki Yoshinaga
Author (text): Minoru Shimizu
Design: Satoshi Machiguchi
Date: 2011
Technique / Printing Method: Offset
Medium / Materials: Hardcover, cloth-bound (pink rabbit & sakura pattern)
Dimensions (cm): 18.7 × 26.4
Language: Japanese
Pages: 76
Publisher / Editor: Tokyo-kirara sha
Condition: Very good, signed by the artist