Summary : “Japanese Only” opens the doors to the Japanese night, not that of clubbing or karaoke bars, but the veiled night, that of sex, paid meetings, places reserved only for Japanese, from which all others are excluded . And yet, two “gaijins”, two strangers, offer us a tour to places we didn’t even know existed…
Critical : This work allows us to unravel the mysteries of fuzoku, namely “everything related to the sex industry”, as mentioned in the first pages. Jérôme Schmidt tells us about these trips from city to city, from island to island, he takes us around the Japanese archipelago. It’s not a question of listing incongruous places, but rather of talking about meetings, exchanges over a drink with a mama, in a bar where customers come to spend their money to prove their love, for not just a evening but sometimes years, or discussion with a sex doll enthusiast, or even an expert in shirabi, the art of tying and untying ropes on a consenting person. The text takes us on a journey and, if we don’t know Japan, the city names sometimes evoke images. However, we quickly get lost, even if we are guided by the author, who meets transvestites, hosts paid by women, hostesses paid by men, through homosexual clubs, new-half places, where gender transition is the norm, as well as a whole bunch of places hidden from view. To manage all this occult world, the yakuzas are very present.
In a more or less marked way, the masters of organized crime are there, keeping an eye on things, avoiding any disorder and allowing the client to follow his fantasies to the end. Because everything is possible for those who find the right networks. And this book leads from astonishment to surprise.
copyright La Manufacture de Livres 2024
But, like this hidden world that Jérôme Schmidt took many years to penetrate, this collection is not delivered with all simplicity. Texts and photos are separated. And if the story follows a certain line, moving from one place to another, from one region to the next, the photos blend together without any caption. It is up to the reader, if he has read the article carefully and taken the time to look at the few small black and white images that accompany it, to find his way.
Indeed, for those who do not know Japanese cities, all the streets look the same, the faces, the outfits look the same. These are small details which will sometimes recall a passage in the text, a place. Thus, by putting the pieces together, we will enter, through an interposed look, into this world of the night and we will gradually arrive, through readings and re-readings, to name the different places shown.
One of the pleasures of this book is not to lustfully observe this entire universe, but to put the pieces together, to find the keys connecting texts and images.
copyright La Manufacture de Livres 2024
The images, moreover, reveal to us in different ways a beautiful part of these nights. Yann Stofer’s photos play on deframing, blurring, those giving the impression of a quick, stolen shot, alternating with square frames, models posing, looking at the camera. The images relate to each other, by their viewing angles, but also by their content. It’s about mixing all of this Japan to bring out a profusion of images, mixing energy and stasis, openness and prohibition, and making us as much a spectator as a voyeur, as well accepted as rejected. What Jérôme Schmidt and Yan Stofer probably experienced.
Japanese Only presents us with the world of night and paid sex through a long story followed by a whole panel of photos. An abundance of images and words, where we are free to wander, in order to find the keys.
