Collection: toshio saeki

Toshio Saeki was born in Miyazaki Prefecture in southeastern Japan. He was four years old when his family moved to Osaka. Toshio Saeki learned to draw at an early age and, after finishing high school, began working in advertising. In 1969, he moved to Tokyo and went on to develop his own world, publishing the following year Saeki Toshio Gashuu, his first work, which in his own words evokes “a nightmarish fresco inspired by traditional Japanese imagery”.

In 1971, he began a regular collaboration with the erotic magazine SM Selecto. Very popular in Japan in the 1970s, he was noticed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who had one of his drawings reproduced on the album Some Time in New York City. The French audience discovered him with Japon Intime, published in 1990 by Albin Michel thanks to Romain Slocombe. He interrupted his various press collaborations at the end of the 1980s, living in semi-retirement in the mountains of Chiba prefecture, outside Tokyo.

In 2019, Editions Cornélius offered a new edition of Red Box, one of his major books. It is accompanied in France by a rare exhibition produced by the Arts Factory gallery. In the same year, Toshio Saeki passed away at the age of 74. Continuing the publication of the chronological work begun with Rêve Écarlate, in June 2022 Editions Cornélius publishes Fièvres Nocturnes, a second volume compiling drawings made by Toshio Saeki between 1972 and 1974.

photo credit: toshio saeki estate / satoshi saikusa