While the West has reluctantly reconciled itself to the idea that the Japanese esthetic has two poles, namely the acceptable and distantly austere Zen side, and the gaudy (loosely derived from esoteric Buddhism), it has remained blind to the underbelly: the raucous, seamy, sexual, funky, and gritty, where most people dwell. Nobuyoshi Araki dwells there too, and he documents and celebrates this side of life. At first glance, Araki’s photography is primarily concerned with the denizens of the sex shops from Tokyo’s Shinjuku district. More importantly, however, his work is an accumulation of data.