Baring its teeth and twisting awkwardly as it struggles against a rope around its neck, the distressed goat in Issei Suda's 1976 photo appears slightly demonic. Its white fur glows uncannily against a mass of dark branches, while its mud-streaked horns and hooves make it all the more ominous. Trapped in the claustrophobic confines of a square, viewers might imagine this is a depiction of a mythic creature facing its demise.
In reality, it's a photo of a domesticated goat tangled up in a makeshift lead at Ginzan Onsen (Ginzan Hot Springs) in Yamagata Prefecture. The photo is one of Suda's best-known works, part of his "Fushi Kaden" series, a group of images that during the 1970s established him as a photographer with a remarkable ability to highlight the theatrical in everyday life.
"Fushi Kaden," which includes photos of festival performers, locals and everyday objects, was inspired by and named after an artistic treatise on noh theater by the 14th-century playwright Zeami, but it also followed Suda's work documenting the most avant-garde of Japanese theater troupes, Shuji Terayama's Tenjo Sajiki.
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