Nihon [Japan].

Nihon is concerned with Japan's post-war national identity. Tomatsu Shomei took most of the photographs between 1955 and 1967 while working for various publications. He had initially intended for the work published here to be issued in three separate books: 'Osorezan: Countryside Politicians', 'Homes, Asphalt', and 'Occupation', which were to follow 11:02 Nagasaki (1966). However, sales of 11:02 Nagasaki were poor, and the publisher, Shashin Dojinsha, collapsed soon after its publication. Tomatsu subsequently formed his own publishing company called Shaken to distribute the remaining copies of his Nagasaki book. In 1967, he published Nihon [Japan], which included photographs from the three previously proposed books divided into nine sections. Although many of the images had been previously published, in a text at the end, Tomatsu notes that in editing and sequencing this book, he has reframed some of the meaning in these photographs.

First edition; 4to (219 x 190 mm, 8½ x 7½ in); black-and-white photographs printed in gravure, texts by Fukushima Tatsuo, Isozaki Arata, Taki Koji, edges toned; blue endpapers with small bookseller's ticket, silver cloth-covered boards, titles stamped in black on spine and on upper side in blind, publisher's plastic dust-jacket, chipped at top edge and head, spine toned, publisher's printed blue sheet laid in, near-fine in a very good dust-jacket; [200]pp.

Auer Collection p479; Japanese Photobooks of the 1960s and '70s pp94-101; Provoke: Between Protest and Performance 21 pp130-1; The Japanese Photobook 1912-1990 pp381.