Bōsōzoku

by Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek

This series by Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek transports the viewer on a journey to Japan and renders the Japanese motorcycle counter culture Bōsōzoku, translating as ‘violent running tribe’.

Bōsōzoku began in the fifties by a collection of frustrated youths from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds agitated by Japanese politics and  to challenge the hegemony of the ruling class. By removing the mufflers of their motorcycles, riding heedlessly through traffic and punctuating their cars and bikes with loud paint schemes, calculated to disturb and outrage.

Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek documents Bōsōzoku in 2019, with new road laws passed in 2004 by the Japanese government to give police further power, Bōsōzoku is diminishing.