LIMITED FIRST EDITION OF JAPON JAPONAIS, WITH OVER 100 HELIOGRAVURES OF IMAGES BY YOICHI MIDORIKAWA

MIDORIKAWA, Yoichi. Japon Japonais. Lausanne: La Guilde du Livre, 1959. Quarto, original plain stiff boards, original photographic French wraps. $750.

Limited first edition of this scarce postwar photobook on Japan, reserved for members of la Guilde du Livre, with over 100 velvety heliogravures (many full page) featuring the work of award-winning Japanese photographer Yoichi Midorikawa.

In the history of 20th-century Japanese photography, “the true beginning of postwar photography dates to around 1950, with the emergence of the photo-realism movement.” The transformative quality of that vision joins in this 1959 photobook with photojournalism’s powerful impact and Japan’s centuries-old landscape tradition in art (History of Japanese Photography, 211). Japon Japonais is especially distinctive in presenting the work of Japanese photographer Yoichi Midorikawa, known for his richly expressive landscapes. The over 100 heliogravures within capture a culture in transition, with images of factory workers and rural villagers, women pearl divers and elegant artists of the tea ceremony, lyric seascapes of swirling mist and moonlight, and astounding panoramas of hillsides sculpted into productive farmland. Number 592 of 10,000 copies printed for members of la Guilde du Livre. Text in French by Swiss journalist Charles-Henri Favrod.

Text and images fresh and bright; lightest edge-wear to French wraps. An about-fine copy.