Aru hi Aru tokoro. Someday, Somewhere.

Signed. Signed copy of the first major post-war Japanese photobook. Ishimoto participated in the first and third The Eyes of Ten exhibition in May 1957 and July 1959. In between, he published this, his first book and the first significant work to emerge from the group. Ishimoto occupies an interesting position in the history of Japanese photography and was another important link between the East and West. Born in San Francisco in 1921, he moved to Japan at age three with his family. After graduating high school, he returned to San Francisco to study. A year later, as a result of the war, he was sent to an internment camp in Colorado for Japanese citizens and those of Japanese descent. It was here that his interest in photography began. After the war, Ishimoto went to Chicago and studied at the Institute of Design under Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind. He graduated in 1952 and returned to Japan the following year, although he continued to travel between the two countries. Someday, Somewhere contains photographs from Chicago and Tokyo, clearly showing the influence of his time studying with Callahan and Siskind.

First edition, signed by Ishimoto in pencil on title-page; 4to (279 x 224 mm, 11 x 8¾ in); colour and black-and-white photographs printed in relief halftone, black-and-white photographs printed in gravure, texts by Watanabe Tsutomu and Ishimoto Yasuhiro in Japanese and English, design by Yamashiro Ryoichi, imprint printed in black on yellow paper with Ishimoto's chop in red ink tipped on to final leaf as issued, occasional minor offsetting; yellow endpapers, navy cloth-covered boards, yellow cloth spine with titles stamped in black, minor wear to corners, colour photo-illustrated dust-jacket printed in black, light wear to edges, minor creasing to lower panel bottom edge, a couple of short tears, one with a tape repair on verso, two pieces of publisher's ephemera laid in, near-fine in an excellent dust-jacket, in a custom chemise and slipcase; [168]pp (two of which are folding).

The Photobook: A History I, pp272-3; Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and '70s pp40-5; The Japanese Photobook 1912-1990 184 pp286-7.