This is beautiful limited edition of “The Japanese Box” published by Steidl Verlag, in association with Edition 7L, Germany in 2001 with a limitation of 1500 numbered copies (edition number is noted on bookplate pasted to the inside of box lid). “The Japanese Box” is a collection of six facsimile reprints and an editor's book (all in stiff wrappers), contained in a custom-designed black lacquered wooden box with metal latches that measures 10” wide x 13” long x 4” high. The set of books is wrapped in fine black Japanese paper and bound by 2 wide rubber bands with the title printed. “The Japanese Box” contains the following collection of 6 facsimile reprints, along with and an editor's book that includes translations of the texts:

1. Provoke #1: 68 pp., with 48 black and white reproductions.

2. Provoke #2: 108 pp., with 54 black and white reproductions.

3. Provoke #3: 110 pp., with 55 black and white reproductions.

4. Nobuyoshi Araki: Sentimental Journey: 106 pp., with 106 black and white reproductions.

5. Daido Moriyama: Bye Bye, Photography Dear: 308 pp., with 308 black and white reproductions.

6. Takuma Nakahira: For a Language to Come: 192 pp., 192 black & white reproductions

The Japanese Box

by Christoph Schifferli

Edition 7L

IN 1968, a magazine with the programmatic title Provoke was published in Tokyo by the photographer and writer Takuma Nakahira, the art critic Koji Taki and other members. Investigating the relation between photography and text, the magazine was an artistic and philosophical manifesto, responding to the upheavals of the late sixties. The participating photographers, among them Daido Moriyama (who joined Provoke with the second issue) searched for a radical photographic language.

Practically unknown in the West, Provoke magazine is now recognized as a turning point in post-war Japanese photography. It significantly influenced many young photographers of the time. Nobuyoshi Araki later recalled that "I was jealous of Provoke, especially Moriyama's nudes in the second issue. (...) I wanted to join them but I wasn't allowed (...) So I worked alone." Provoke's radical quest to break with established forms of photography can be traced through the subsequent history of Japanese photography.

Originally published in very small editions (Provoke magazine had a print run of 1,000 copies), the publications reprinted in The Japanese Box are extremely rare today and almost impossible to find, even in Japan.

Price

UK £1,000.00

US $2,000.00

EC €1,500.00

6 facsimile reprints and a text booklet in a wooden box

6 volumes

Edition 7L

ISBN: 3-88243-301-9

Publication date: September 2001

http://www.steidlville.com/books/197-The-Japanese-Box.html