Obskurex-13c is a tribute to a rare and largely undocumented Japanese black-and-white film stock believed to have been tested briefly in the late 1980s. Said to have emerged from an obscure research division known as "Project Kuro", within a now-defunct Japanese film manufacturer.

Never officially released to market, it circulated in limited test rolls among underground photographers, photojournalists, and avant-garde documentarians. Fragments of its aesthetic — high contrast, low gloss, heavy grain — remained etched in select underground zines and anonymous Tokyo street photography portfolios.

OBSKUReX-13c rendered reality in a way no other emulsion ever could — muted chromes, heavy monochrome tones, bizarre contrast behavior, and a grain structure that bordered on organic. The results were raw, surreal, and often unsettling. Under Tokyo’s sodium streetlights and Osaka’s fog-heavy back alleys, it seemed to record emotion itself—not just light.

Those who used it swore the film reacted to the soul of the subject.

After years of study and obsessive digital emulation, I’ve recreated the essence of OBSKUReX-13c as a Fuji Film Simulation Recipe—for Fujifilm X-series cameras.

失われた錬金術

The Lost Alchemy of Obskurex-13c