Inspired by the layered cultures of Asia, Xavier relies on chance to evolve projects, using the photographic lens not only to witness the elusiveness of the moment but also to be an integral part of it. As a follow up to Tokyo Erotika, a careful selection of both his Jiutamai and Tokyo Up Down series are now on display at our [VP] space located at 63 Spottiswoode Park Road

The photographer meets the Jiuta-mai dancer

“Noe turns slowly on the tatami to the plucked notes of the jiuta, warm candlelight casting trembling shadows on the translucent shoji, her body curls in an harmonious loop of movement and, the three strings muted, succumbs to unbearable sadness and she kneels, inconsolable amid the pain of lost love, bending back, extended arms flowing from her sides in a slow and graceful motion, evoking solitude, her hands grasping at imagined snowflakes.

Jiuta-mai is rarely seen by foreigners, yet here, in Daio-ji, a small Buddhist temple in Yanaka, my camera is seeing a style of dance little changed since the twelfth century, the Heian period, Shirabyôshi, forerunners of the geisha, performed for a single noble or highest- ranked samurai.”

- Xavier Comas