Nippon

Shomei Tomatsu
Nippon

Photographs: Shomei Tomatsu

Publisher: Shaken

200 pages

Pictures: 150

Year: 1967

Comments: Original silver cloth with title debossed on hardcover with acetate dust jacket, 227 x 195 mm. First edition, 1967. Monotone Gravure printing. Very scarce and collectible copy!

A retrospective book, Nippon, published in 1967, is full of dramatic, often contradictory-seeming, images of landscapes, holy men, traditional actors and half-hidden artefacts. It is also a major assessment of Japanese postwar national identity. It was the first publication of Tomasu's own publishing company Shaken. Most of the photos assembled in this volume were shot on assignment in various parts of the country between 1955 and 1967.