Kansai Yamamoto, the Japanese fashion designer, best known for or creating androgynous and futuristic stage costumes for David Bowie, most notably for the Ziggy Stardust Tour, has died.
He was born 8 February 1944 and was a maverick Sun Aquarius in an expansive opposition to Jupiter in flamboyant Leo – both of those reflected in his gloriously colourful choice of fabrics and wild styles. His powerful Pluto was conjunct a leadership North Node in Leo tying him into the zeitgeist.
His Venus in Capricorn was a good fit for Bowie’s Sun, Mars in Capricorn and Kansai’s Sun fell in Bowie’s 1st with his Jupiter in Bowie’s 7th. A felicitous partnership.
Their relationship chart had a creative and upbeat Grand Trine of Sun trine Jupiter Neptune trine an innovative Uranus, formed into a Kite by Sun opposition Pluto – making influential Pluto the driving planet.
In the early Nineties, he moved from avant-garde fashion collections to focus on live entertainment Super Shows, combining elements of music, dance, acrobatics, traditional Japanese festivals and other spectacles, and were performed around the world. A showman always.
His creative 5th Harmonic was strong; as was his leaving-a-legacy 17H; and his superstar 22H.
The costumes Kansai designed for Bowie during his Ziggy/Aladdin Sane period, saw both
of them at their most exotic. Many have followed, but few have managed to supersede that
brilliant period in Bowie’s career.