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2011, Apr 28
Top 5 Japanese photography books?

I received this question from Gabriel Benaim, who had written inquiring about Koyuki Tayama’s books:

What would you put in your top 5 list for Japanese photobooks in print (or reasonably found)?

Limiting the list to books in print (or reasonably found) makes it a lot easier for me to answer, because I’m not sitting on a huge collection of rare books. Four of the five books on this list I actually own, which I think is important. The memory of a great exhibit might stay with you for weeks or years, but a photobook is an object you live with. Your relationship to it might change as you look at it during different times. So here’s the list, in no particular order:

Rinko Kawauchi, Utatane. Little More, 2001. ¥3000
Hiromi Tsuchida, Zokushin. Tosei-sha, 2004 edition (the original is from 1976 but this is better anyway). ¥7500
Ume Kayo, Ume-me. Little More, 2000, ¥2000.
Yasuko Noguchi, Sakurabito. Vacuum Press, ¥1050.
Aya Fujioka, I Don’t Sleep. Akaaka-sha, 2009. ¥5000

Tayama’s books are all sold out, by the way, so they don’t really qualify for this list. I’ve added a couple of links to Japan Exposures where they carry the book, otherwise “reasonably found” may still entail some kind of convoluted ordering process. “Reasonable for Japan”?

This is my first listicle. It’s gonna get me tons of hits right?

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Photobook Nonsense

Yes, “Zokushin” is pretty good. The best part is the forest party scene, and this is very good indeed. But for me, a lot of the rest doesn’t come close. I have a copy of the book and enjoy it, but I’ve always thought of it as a four- rather than a five-star work.

Sorry, the others that you list do little for me.

Right then, how about this bunch? (Photographers’ names in their original order. The books are in no particular order.)

Suda Issei 須田一政, “Min’yō sanga” (民謡山河), 2007. Mining a vein close to that of “Zokushin” As far as I can remember, there’s not a word of English in it, but then there’s hardly a word of Japanese in it either.

Dodo Shunji 百々俊二, “Ōsaka” (大阪) / “Osaka”, 2010. Large-format views of, you guessed it, Osaka. Lots of material, all good. (Well, ten or twenty percent could have been shaved off it.) Generously captioned and essayed in both Japanese and English.

Kikai Hiroo 鬼海弘雄 (though “Hiroh Kikai” for this book), “Asakusa Portraits”, 2008. All right, it’s not a Japanese book, it’s a US/German book. But particularly if you get it at the cut price offered by the usual oligopolists, the authentically Japanese predecessor “Perusona” (ぺるそな) doesn’t compete, while the lavish and superbly printed original “Persona” is no longer available new. Portraits of people in Asakusa, taken over years and years.

Nagano Shigeichi 長野重一, “Nagano Shigeichi” (長野重一), alternatively titled “Hysteric 14”, 2005. An edition of under a thousand copies; and the fact that unsold copies are still plentiful five years after publication while the stores seem to move cartloads of trendy blankness by Homma and Sanai just goes to show that people have no taste. This is a retrospective by Nagano — though he’s still working in his mid-eighties, and long may he flourish.

Fukuhara Shinzō 福原信三 and Fukuhara Rosō 福原路草, “Hikari to sono kaichō: Fukuhara Shinzō, Fukuhara Rosō: 1913-nen–1941-nen” (光とその諧調:福原信三・福原路草:1913年–1941年) / “The Light with Its Harmony: Shinzo Fukuhara / Roso Fukuhara: Photographs 1913–1941”, 1992. Yes, close to twenty years old, but new copies are still available. (Or they were three days ago, at “Syabi”.) The English text is a bit odd, and not as informative as that in at least one alternative — but, despite its age, this is the book with the best reproductions of the brothers’ work. Pace Ina Nobuo and a lot of other critics, but the reviled (outmoded, sentimental, etc etc) “pictorialism” can have quite a bit going for it, as we see here.

Posted by John / May 8, 2011 at 5:41 pm:

also Mirai Chan.

Hi Peter, I’ll count one “pretty good” out of five from you as a success 😀 Just giving you a hard time though, I appreciate your comment. I like Asakusa Portraits, I think if I owned it I would feel more strongly about it. Same goes for Nagano, who I tend to forget, which is criminal, I know. I had the chance to see a stack of his prints once, it was really impressive. At the time I made a mental note: “do not forget about Nagano.” Oops.

No love for Utatane? I look forward to talking about that. I think I understand where you’re coming from though. I like Issei a lot, I don’t recognize that title but I can imagine it. What do you make of Shimohira Tatsuya?

I don’t have enough money to actively buy photobooks. Buying books is an important activity, not just for keeping publishers afloat but for developing a better understanding of a photographer. These days I’ll buy small publications in the ¥1500 range, but I hardly even consider books over ¥2500, which does rule out a lot. I’m lucky enough to have some books given to me, which is nice. Not trying to whine or cry foul about this, it’s just the facts. I’d love to buy more.

John – be nice! Mirai-chan is not the death knell of Japanese photography.

Posted by Microcord / May 10, 2011 at 7:37 pm:

Well, “pretty good” now strikes me as a churlish way of putting it. “Zokushin” is good. I bought it (at a discount, from Mandarake, but still not cheap); I look through it from time to time; I enjoy it. But somehow I haven’t yet thrilled to it in the way that other people clearly do.

Suda’s “Min’yō sanga” (民謡山河) gets the Japan Exposures video treatment, no less, at http://www.japanexposures.com/2010/10/30/books-by-hiromi-tsuchida-and-issei-suda/ . (Sorry, I don’t know what the linking syntax is in this blog.)

“Ōsaka” (大阪) isn’t cheap, but in Totem Pole, Mr Arimoto was recently selling one or more copies at a generous discount. Signed, too. (Incidentally, Arimoto’s own “Ariphoto” vol. 1 is a pretty good portfolio and one that squeezes into your “buyable” class.)

The Hysteric book is one of Nagano’s more expensive. “Tōi shisen” (遠い視線) / “Distant Gaze” — 2005; not to be confused with “Tōi shisen” (遠い視線) of 1989 — often turns up used and at a modest price; the size of the reproductions is a bit weedy but the photographs are good and it’s worth the money. (Though the photobook market is so wacky that it can turn up at a high price too….)

Used copies of Kikai’s ぺるそな ought to be available cheaply. The pages aren’t that small and the reproduction quality is amazingly good for something produced at a low price and in contradistinction to the first, opulent edition (I think it bills itself as 普及版).

Print quality of “Fukuhara Shinzō, Fukuhara Rosō: Hikari to sono kaichō” (福原信三 福原路草:光とその諧調) — despite the similar title, not the same as the book I recommended above — is disappointing but not really bad. It’s a Nikkor Club production and surplus copies are plentiful; I bought my copy for 100 yen.

For that matter, there’s also a Nikkor Club book by Suda that’s worth looking out for: “Waga-Tōkyō hyaku” (わが東京100). Perhaps the best value for money you’ll find these days in 1970s Japanese photobooks. Unlike (say) Fukase, there’s no mania for Suda’s books; pray that none is featured in any Parr-and-Badger volume 3 till you’ve either bought a copy at a sensible price or decided that it’s not your thing.

I’d never heard of Shimohira Tatsuya. The little jpegs I see when I look him up seem at least moderately intriguing. If I heard that he had an exhibition I might well go along and take a look.

Posted by John / May 11, 2011 at 3:55 am:

A death chime it is not! My only problem with Mirai Chan is that the binding looks to have been affixed Daiso-quality water based glue or white sticky rice pushed down real hard. All the copies I’ve seen open for viewing are more loosely collected portfolios rather than actual bound books after being handled by so many people in the shops.

Posted by John / May 11, 2011 at 3:57 am:

Oh yes and another vote for Suda’s “Waga-Tōkyō hyaku” (わが東京100). And yet another for Mitsugu Onishi’s “Wonderland”.

Ah, the Suda book you were mentioning is a Tosei-sha book! I do know it, it’s up my alley. I suggested Shimohira san to you because he’s also done a sort of similar thing, going to matsuri. That said their motivations for taking pictures of matsuri are much different. Shimohira has a collaborative show up at Totem Pole Photo gallery starting on the 17th. Speaking of Totem Pole, I am a proud owner of Ariphoto Vol. 1.

I will keep an eye out for “Waga-Tōkyō hyaku.”

I also like Onaka Koji’s “Tokyo Candy Box,” Abe Jun’s “Citizens” (though it’s now out of print) and Tsuneo Yamashita’s “Another Time on the Ryukyu Islands”—among others of course!

Posted by Microcord / May 12, 2011 at 8:34 am:

Abe Jun’s “Citizens”, yes!

I don’t know “Tokyo Candy Box”. I do like “A Dog in France”; what a ridiculous situation and premise for a book, and what an unlikely success.

Apropos of Nikkor Club books, I recommend Shiotani Teikō 塩谷定好, “Uminari no fūkei” 海鳴りの風景; there are loads of cheap copies around.

Which in turn reminds me of the most famous among his followers. I’ve lost some of my youthful enthusiasm for Ueda Shōji 植田正治 (a number of the images are too widely reproduced for their own good, and also I think some of his work became formulaic), but my favorite among his books (or anyway those I’ve seen) is the recent, smallish format, and pleasantly priced “Boku no arubamu” 僕のアルバム. It’s intimate, fresh, and still in print.

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