Hara Yoshiichi has published several books comprising portraits of strippers and other performers, but the selection of work here is much broader. Hara was a friend of Suzuki Kiyoshi, and like Suzuki's books, Mandara Zukan has a carefully composed sequence. Publisher Watada Susumu writes:

'When I was considering making a book out of Hara Yoshiichi's Mandara Zukan, I naively thought it would be a good idea to pair some of the photographs to quotes by well-known poets. I spent the whole night picking out dozens of poems. Coupled with a kind of narcissism, it was difficult for me to break free from this shallow, intellectual way of thinking. I was previously unaware of the problems in trying to caption a photograph with anything other than a photograph. What does it mean to have words with a specific meaning attached to a specific photograph.'

First edition; 4to (205 x 209 mm, 8 x 8¼ in); black-and-white photographs, text by Watada Susumu; illustrated adhesive-bound wrappers, shallow reading crease, remains of a small sticker front-free endpaper, illustrated dust-jacket, toned and lightly marked, short tears to head of spine and outer corner at folds, a very good copy; [608]pp.