[Signed]Keiichi Inamine - SEINEN Phantom Lotus

Release year: 2026

Binding: Hardcover with dust jacket

Pages: 80 pages

Size: 11.9 x 8.7 x 0.39 in (30.3 x 22.3 x 1 cm)

Publisher: Komiyama Tokyo

Edition: Limited First Edition of 300 Copies, Signed

Keiichi Inamine is one of the key figures in Japanese gay photography and queer art, with a practice that dates back to the 1980s. Working under the name Kochi-Shun, he was involved in different parts of Japan’s underground gay scene. He was part of Mann House, known for producing Japanese gay videos, and helped establish Creators in Tokyo in 1983, a company that published nude photobooks. In 1994, he founded Kochi Photography Studio and continued to develop his own photographic work.

Inamine published several books, including Moon Day: Men Going to Meet God (1994) and Portraits of a Moment (1996). He was also a close friend of Japanese artist Sadao Hasegawa (1945–1999), whose work has become an important reference in contemporary Japanese queer culture. In 1996, Inamine published Hasegawa’s now highly collectible book Paradise Visions.

After more than 20 years without a new book, Inamine returns with SEINEN Phantom Lotus (幻花青年), a collection of previously unpublished photographs exploring the Japanese male physique. Young men emerge softly from hazy, dreamlike settings, appearing alongside delicate flowers. The images move between the physical and the ethereal, reflecting Inamine’s long-standing interest in the male figure and his own ideas of beauty.

Across his earlier work, Inamine approached the male figure in different ways, from carefully composed portraits featuring dramatic lighting and traditional Japanese motifs to images capturing movement and fleeting moments. SEINEN Phantom Lotus continues this exploration through a softer, more dreamlike atmosphere.

SEINEN Phantom Lotus marks the return of a photographer whose work has been part of Japanese gay culture and queer visual history for more than four decades.