Inspired by the controlled chaos and energy of this ancient martial art, Red Patience explores an outsider’s experience of the mores and contradictions of Japanese culture
Josie Hall creates arresting, often surreal images which exist at the intersection of art, fashion and futurism (underscored by her interest in nostalgia and tradition). The London-based photographer’s upcoming exhibition, Red Patience, is the apotheosis of these influences. Previously, she’s shot for the likes of Balenciaga, Martine Rose and Prada, but in this show, Hall takes the martial art of Kendo as a prism through which to explore what she describes as the “structure and intensity” of Japanese culture. This series of visceral, mesmeric images, throbbing with movement, light and vivid colours, pay homage to Kendo’s ancient tradition and symbolism.
“When I first visited Japan I was moved by the general way of life and culture, the dedication to craft and discipline. It felt more foreign than anywhere I had been and yet I felt so comfortable and present there,” she explains. “There is so much respect for process and perfection. Deeply rooted traditions, ritual and the refinement of craft are part of daily life – something is repeated over and over until it is mastered.”
Aside from the collision of modernity and tradition that Tokyo offers, Hall was also captivated by the alluring charge and energy she sensed even beneath the surface of the city’s more serene suburbs; “a sense that there was so much unseen that I hadn’t managed to get to, behind the curtains, up the stairs and down the alleyways”. Her first encounter with Kendo was as an overheard disturbance as she was walking through the calm, quiet residential backstreets of Tokyo. “The streets are silent, there’s very little noise from crowds or cars, all movement seems quiet. But every now and then you can hear Kendo coming from the dojos,” she recalls. “Initially, it’s quite unsettling … an extremely loud clacking noise followed by screams and wailing opponents.”
Intrigued, she began researching Kendo and the history of samurai, and discovered Miyamoto Musashi’s The Book of Five Rings – a philosophy divided into the five elements of earth, water, fire, wind and void. This text became crucial to the evolving concept of Red Patience. “In Kendo, what interested me was how the way of the sword correlates directly to how one operates in daily life. It’s not just about combat, but how it acts as a framework for living: discipline, composure under pressure, responsibility and respect,” she explains. “With The Book of Five Rings, I was drawn to the way it’s split into elements, each focusing on a different aspect of strategy and mindset. The chapters gave a clear structure of how we could approach the project.”
Before she began shooting, Hall had a vague sense of what she wanted to create, visually. “I like to paint light, and capture this harmony between light, colour, and shape, mixed with something more haunting or nostalgic in the general mood of the work,” she says. Kendo is described as a form of expression, like dance, and this feeling of movement exists in the images, which are animated with a kind of mystical energy, informed by her other inspirations – namely the textures and light she encountered in Tokyo and in animé.
The exhibition also features a video work made in collaboration with artist Mike Lamont. For Hall, it’s a crucial part of this body of work. “It was rooted in a shared curiosity of building our own visual world through an unconventional construction and exploring more experimental methods. We wanted to push the work and build on the ancient narrative of samurai by collapsing the tradition, constructing and rebuilding through our own rituals and tools,” she says. “What emerged sits somewhere between film and something still – an image or painting – where tradition and abstraction meet, and where the act of construction is as present as the image itself. The outcome loops back to something almost pre-photographic; it feels like it could sit alongside traditional Japanese ink paintings, where motion and energy are distilled into a few decisive marks.”
For Hall, her foray into Kendo isn’t over. “As an artist, I’m mostly obsessed by light – how it can be distorted and manipulated. It’s infinite and never right or wrong.” She’s also fascinated by her dreams and nightmares, colour, shape and movement. Here, in Red Patience, and, more broadly, her passion for Japan, these obsessions coalesce in her painterly evocations of Samurai swordsmanship, which also embody some of the contradictions she experienced in Tokyo – the harmony of control and chaos. In the future, she plans to expand on this aspect of the series. “There is another part of the project I still have to return to shoot, which concentrates more on the beauty in the chaos,” she says.
Red Patience by Josie Hall is on show at Have A Butchers in London from 17 April – 1 May 2026.
