Sentimental Journey is Araki Nobuyoshi's signature work, one of the key photography books of the twentieth century. It comprises photographs made whilst on honeymoon with his wife Yoko in Yanagawa on Japan's Kyushu Island. Araki's exposure of this most intimate of occasions attracted much criticism in a country which still valued a strict code of behaviour, but ultimately, by putting his private life forward for public scrutiny, he paved the way for successive generations of Japanese photographers to work in a similar vein.

Initially, Araki had intended for Sentimental Journey to contain no text. However, after publication and and at the request of the bookshop Kinokuniya, he wrote a short introduction that rejects the falseness and insincerity of much photography and compares his work to the popular post-war literary form of the 'I' novel. This is the first of a loose trilogy of privately printed books, followed by Okinawa: Sentimental Journey Continued (1971) and Tokyo (1973).

First edition; 4to (238 x 238 mm, 91/4 x 9 1/4 in); black-and-white photographs; side-stapled with photo-illustrated card covers, white and black, light wear and soiling, faint stains to rear, foot bumped, a very good copy without the leaf of green paper subsequently added shortly after publication at a bookshop's request, though this can be supplied in facsimile if requested; [108]pp.

Roth, Provoke pp11-12; Roth, The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century pp206-7; Parr/Badger, The Photobook: A History, I p295; Roth, The Open Book: A History of the Photographic Book from 1878 to the Present pp268-9; 802 photo books from the Auer collection p527; Araki: Self, Life, Death p694; A Book of Araki Books! 1970-2005 pp38-45; Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and '70s pp108-115; Japanese Photobooks 1912-1990 pp406-407.