Yoshiaga Masayuki and the Pageantry of Speed
Art Asia Pacific, #50, Fall 2006
Photographer Yoshinaga Masayuki captures the regalia and spectacular, chrome-laden souped-up steeds of the nocturnal bosozoku motorcycle gangs of Japan’s underworld. The motorcycle gangs are comprised mainly of young men and women under 20 who exhibit a potent mix of youthful alienation and nationalist identification, with many of the members sewing symbols such as the Japanese imperial flag and the golden chrysanthemum - the imperial crest – onto their uniforms. In large groups, the gangs roar through urban and suburban streets in public displays of speed and solidarity, customizing their engines and removing mufflers to gain full auditory effect. The bosozoku embody the contradictions that haunt a country still coming to terms with its military past and its economically turbulent present. In a society where right-wing sentiment is implicitly discouraged in the public sphere and yet tacitly propagated by politicians, teachers and others in prominent positions of authority, the bikers’ audacious embrace of marginalized rhetoric, and the pageantry that goes with it, flaunts the status quo.
The bosozoku, who take to the streets at night, find an odd parallel in the equally earsplitting displays of conservative zeal blasting out on daytime streets from menacing black buses outfitted with loud-speakers manned by political traditionalists soap-boxing for a return to Imperial Japan. Rarely taken seriously, these buses and, perhaps, the bosozoku themselves, are regarded as a mere nuisance. Yoshinaga frames such political extremism in portraits that urge the viewer not only to examine the gang member's tough exteriors, but also consider the broader ramifications of the gangs' actions.
Shooting the gang members and their bikes in pristine white studios, Yoshinaga employs a humanistic approach in his photography, with-holding judgment on youth commonly stigmatized as academic losers and future yakuza members. Placing them in either group scenarios or as individuals in close proximity to their preciously detailed bikes, Yoshinaga, who once belonged to a motorcycle gang himself, memorializes his former cohorts in formal portraits that complement action-laced documentary street scenes.
In all of the photos, the gang members' well-kempt suits draw immediate attention; usually in solid black or white, the heavily embroidered uniforms, supporting a pastiche of individual mottos and imperialist patches sewn in brightly-hued silk thread, demonstrate seductive graphic assuredness. These might confidently mark the wearer as a member of the Specter group and its "100 demons riding in the night," the Road Dance Soldiers or the Road Runners. The rough young faces of the subjects, however, are more complex, vulnerable to self-doubt even as they strain to display the stoicism demanded by the samurai code that informs their ideology.
The opulent trappings of their tenderly-crafted uniforms reveal individual personalities, which further emerge through the aesthetic sensibilities etched into their motorcycle designs. The rainbow- colored paint job on one machine or the hard-edged flames leaping from the gasoline tank of another inspire visions of carefree joie-de-vivre even though the cold metal surfaces of the high-powered Hondas, Suzukis and other brand-name bikes that the racers favor project hell-bent masculinity.
Though the bosozoku may seem like bastions of machinery- enhanced machismo at first glance, Yoshinaga's portraits of female bikers show that women play an equally important role in the culture. Many young women involved in the groups either pilot their own bikes, ride along or watch from the sidelines. Their bleached hair, finely decorated uniforms and motorcycle boots give them a tough façade at odds with the stereotypical image of the trend-conscious gyaru (gals) who frequent urban commercial centers.
As a former biker himself, Yoshinaga understands the intricacies of the gangs better than others who sensationalize their stories through literary or visual means. Yoshinaga notes in his writing, the bikers generally commit petty crimes: breaking the speed limit, causing public disturbances and engaging in the occasional drag race or street fight with other gangs. Very few of them actually go on to a life of crime. Their rebellion is of the moment - a several-year-long wanderjahr - after which they return to the regimentation of the everyday workforce. Here, Yoshinaga captures the perverse irony of the bosozoku mind: one part rebels against society through the medium of speed, the other subscribes to the tenets of group identification that define a ritualized subculture.