The first French translation of the texts of the Japanese artist and writer Akasegawa Genpei, a figure of the Tokyo avant-garde of the 1960s, on the concept of Tomason, with a rich iconography.
Akasegawa Genpei (赤瀬川原平, Akasegawa Katsuhiko, aka Otsuji Katsuhiko, 1937-2014) is a major figure emerging from the Japanese counterculture of the 1960s. Visual artist, action artist, essayist, writer, photographer, columnist, humorist, etc., he was part of all the most radical underground adventures: co-founder of the anti-art groups Hi-Red Center and Neodada Organizers, he was a facilitator of the Bigakkō alternative art school. He collaborated with Hijikata Tatsumi in the early days of the latter's career, and continued his frenetic activity until his death. He was one of the few members of the Japanese underground to gain widespread popularity through his writings and publications. He coined the pataphysical concept of Tomason in the 1970s, creating an alternative anartistic current of observation of the paradoxes of the urban landscape that has been perpetuated to the present day by his followers. Despite this, Akasegawa remains almost unknown outside Japan.
