Illustrator Daisuke Ichiba, the Herald of Japanese Counter Culture

Daisuke Ichiba is part of a generation of artists who have been strongly marked by the golden age of manga. For years, he ran a second-hand store selling clothing and manga in Koenji district in Tokyo, while the pages of his own work are dedicated to otaku counter-culture. His heroine, a mysterious young woman wearing a pleated skirt, has an eye patch and a knife.

His work is tinged with melancholy, with an acute awareness of death and the evil that exudes from even the most innocuous scenes: a cannibalistic banquet with no visible food, a crime scene without corpses, or two lovers on a beach, with no clear indicators of the impending drama.

Morbid beauty

On the fringes of contemporary art, comic books, dark poetry, and noise art, Daisuke Ichiba describes himself as a painter of beauty (bijin-gaka). This beauty is often morbid, with one-eyed, emotionless schoolchildren and dead animals appearing side by side. For those wanting to gain a better understanding of this character, his art, and his outlook, the book Daisuke Ichiba, l’art d’équilibrer les dissonances, a fully illustrated trilingual edition in French, English, and Japanese, is an indispensable source.

Daisuke Ichiba, l’art d’équilibrer les dissonances (2017) is a book published by Arsenic Galerie.