This work of Eikoh Hosoe’s displays various themes which are recurring within the larger work, the book Ordeal by Roses.  It is helpful to examine some of the other images from this work as well as other series by Eikoh Hosoe in order to see these themes fully realized.  The imagery given in this image displays an almost nude male seated in a position reminiscent to that of meditation however his mudra like hands seem to be goggle like hinting at seeing the viewer creating a relational sort of voyeurism.  His portrayal of the near nude arises often in this series can be seen below.

Here we can begin to note the edifying of the sensuality of Eikoh Hosoe’s portrayal of the male figure.  Taking a look at works from his series depicting male and female figures in a sort of dialectic we can further understand Hosoe’s view of the nude.

These depictions of the nude figure display a heightened sense of sensuality as well as equality.  There is a strong emphasis on the curvature of both the male and female bodies.  Now looking back at the original work we can see the role that the near nude plays as emphasizing sensuality even without so blatantly bringing the curvature of the body to attention as in these works. 

It is also important to understand the subject choice for Ordeal by Roses.  Yukio Mishima was a well known and extremely prolific japanese author.  Much of Mishima’s work is considered to be largely autobiographical.  Mishima also had a strong interest in the human form as did Eikoh Hosoe.  It was this interest and fascination with his own body which caused Mishima to begin working out and training in martial arts making him a prime subject for Hosoe’sphotography.  Mishima also often posed in photographs depicting scenes of death displaying his preoccupation.  Ordeal by Roses is considered to be a biographical work depicting in a sense stages of life for Mishima ending with the final chapter entitled Death which Mishima named himself.  It is said that these photographs and Hosoe’s book were in some sense preparation for Mishima’s suicide.

Though the religious undertones are not blatant or as obvious in other pictures it seems that they are not specific to religion but hinting at a sort of spirtiuality which can be found to be related also to death.  Both Mishima and Hosoe were very active in the post World War II time period.  In some sense their work and this collaboration can be seen as a sort of re establishing of post war identity in devastated Japan which may have also spanwed this fascination with death that was finalized in Mishima’s suicide.

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