PhotoBooks Japan

Except for the rare international superstar like Araki Nobuyoshi, known for his gamy shots of nude young women, Japanese photography is a closed book to Westerners. Yet it has a distinguished and vital tradition that has enriched every genre, from portraits to landscapes, with a unique blend of lyricism and candor. In The History of Japanese Photography, a wealth of captivating images and essays by seven scholars trace 140 years of stylistic and cultural evolution. In 1857 a local ruler had his portrait taken with a daguerreotype set brought to Nagasaki by a foreign ship. Eleven years later, official photographs of the emperor--never glimpsed in person by his subjects—became widely available. Photographers were increasingly called upon to document new Japanese territories, natural disasters, and wars. Visitors hankered after studio shots of geishas and other exotica. Beginning in the 1890s, upper-class amateur photographers contributed a new emphasis on aesthetics. In the 1930s exquisite Pictorialist images of natural beauty gave way to modernist influences from Berlin and Moscow, and then—in wartime—to a conservative emphasis on traditional rural life. Individual expression dominated postwar photography, as seen in such images as Tomatsu Shomei’s haunting "Beer bottle after the atomic bomb explosion." Recent work reflects the dislocations of urban consumer society. Beautifully produced, with 356 color illustrations, this groundbreaking volume accompanies an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (March 2-April 27, 2003) that travels to the Cleveland Museum of Art (May 18-July 27, 2003). —Cathy Curtis

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If you ever wondered where the catwalk got its claws, then the portraits gathered in photographer Shoichi Aoki's book Fruits, from the streets of Harajuku in Tokyo, point the way to an extraordinarily imaginative and invariably stunning glut of mongrel fashion heists. A best-of collection from the fanzine of the same name, and published for the first time outside Japan, Fruits keeps its style clean: front-on, razor-sharp images, ranging from the deadpan to the manic, of the sharpest collages of sartorial influence that, usually, little money can buy. From off the peg to off the wall, kitsch to bitch, each person bears a combination and philosophy as distinctive as DNA. All shades of aesthetic are raided, with exquisite, scrupulous attention to detail. Punk is a favorite, as is, appropriately, Vivienne Westwood, alongside Milk and Jean-Paul Gaultier, and the occasional Comme des Garçons. Many of the outfits, though, are second-hand or self-assembly, such as a skirt drooping petals of men's silk ties, Wa-mono, when tradition Japanese clothes are topped with, say, an authentic bowler hat, EGL (elegant gothic Lolita), and a swathe of tartans, pinks, and turquoises. The most malleable feature, unsurprisingly, is hair, with dreadlocks, mohicans, back-combing, and crops dyed an irradiated spectrum. While the eye is drawn, obediently, to the mannequins, the background is often worth a look, either for the vending machines against which a number are shot, or the ubiquitous Gap store and bags, a constant reminder of the global mass market.

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A collection of photographs of the Irezumi, a secretive group of people drawn from the Japanese underworld who have chosen to have themselves transformed through tattooing into living works of art.

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A photographic record of the US bombings of the two Japanese cities, with some 400 b&w photos picturing US preparations for the attack and the cities and their citizens before and after the bombings.

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From chic Tokyo to tropical Okinawa, Japan Paradise takes readers into the most beautiful settings the islands have to offer. At the base of Mount Fuji stands the Fujuya Hotel, its walls carved with elaborate creatures. In Akita, natural hot springs send up plumes of inviting steam. Kazuyoshi Miyoshi captures these lovely sights and many more, such as a peaceful tea garden, an elegant room with tatami mats and paper screens, and a path of lanterns leading into the woods. Traveler's information for each hotel is included.

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Here, three leading Western photographers present three contrasting visions of contemporary Japan: the traditional, the urban and the rural.

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Written by an American writer on Japanese art and culture who has lived in Tokyo since 1947, this is a survey of Tokyo's architecture, fashions, nightlife and sex industry. Richie takes readers on a tour of some of the districts of Japan's capital city to provide a view of a culture and people normally hidden from outsiders. Starting from the original centre of Tokyo - the Imperial Palace - the tour branches outwards, encompassing other areas such as Yoshiwara, the original red-light district, and Ginza, the well-known shopping street. The author has kept a diary for the entire time during which he has lived in Tokyo, and excerpts from it provide insights into the significance of fashions and fads in the national culture, and various aspects of life in a small neighbourhood. This study of the flavour and idiosyncracies of a chaotic, teeming city includes photographs by a Seattle-based photographer, Joel Sackett.

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The early years of the 20th-century were a time of trmendous change and growth for Japan, which was reflected in the photography that emerged at the time. By the end of the 19th-century, a new generation of photographers was emerging, many of whom studied in a system that was integrating Western ideas into Japanese culture. As Japan made the transition into an industrialized economy, artists began to establish themselves in the international arena. The pre-war modern photography movement in Japan flourished with a rich exchange of ideas and information as aritsts studied in Europe and international artistic developments were explored through exhibitions and publications in Japan. "Modern Photography in Japan: 1915-1940"will present over 80 images, many of which have never been seen before in the United States, by 35 photographers whose work evolved from a pictorialist tradition to the beginning of a modernist aesthetic.

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This is a survey of the impact of photography on contemporary Japanese art. It also provides an introduction to traditional Japanese art, offering a context for understanding the innovations of today's artists. The 110 works shown were created since the 1970s by 12 Japanese artists.

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Any first-time visitor to Japan will be struck by that most beautiful symbol of its ancient culture: the kimono. This book contains a selection of the numerous encounters photographer Paul van Riel had with people wearing kimono all over Japan. Although its popularity has dwindled somewhat over the last 25 years, the national garment of Japan is still deeply rooted in Japanese culture, as these photographs testify. Liza Dalby describes the kimono's transformation from daily clothing to formal wear over the course of the 20th century. Her personal experiences give us a glimpse of the meanings the kimono has for the geisha. Introduction and captions by Liza Dalby, photographs and text by Paul van Riel.

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