Tokyo was one of the first self published books by Araki in 1973. And simultaneously one of his most important titles inside his close to 600 titles he has published in the meantime. Especially the text by Koji Taki, Japan’s most important intellectual force in the photographers scene of the time, goes kongenial with Araki’s pictures. These pictures, in fact compositions of two different images (a street image combined with one of Araki’s erotic photographs of woman) broach the issue of an important subject: the influence of the metropolis architecture on how Japanese woman where treated in the society of the time. The original maquette of Araki’s then published book was part of the exhibition, held in the end of 2017 at the Pinakothek der Moderne.

Our book, co published with the museum in Munich, includes Koji Taki’s groundbreaking text, for the first time translated into English and German: And a number of images from the seventies, from a time when Araki still photographed analogue and predominantly in black & white.