Signed, Shomei Tomatsu - Sakura 66 - 1990

Sakura 66

Shomei Tomatsu
Brain Center /1990/japanese/280*280*10

Sakura Sakura Sakura 66 is a collection of photographs by leading Japanese photographer Shomei Higashimatsu. Shomei Higashimatsu is one of the leading post-war photographers in Japan. He has always maintained a high level of awareness of issues and a relentless spirit of inquiry into the original image of Japan and the Japanese people, including a desire for peace based on the internal wounds of Nagasaki, Okinawa and other areas during the war, criticism of civilisation and politics from a sharp perspective, and an inquiry into the human involvement in nature and materials. His works include ‘11:02 NAGASAKI’, ‘Oh! Shinjuku’, “Japan”, “I am a king” and “Pencil of the Sun”, Higashimatsu published numerous masterpieces during the 1960s and 1970s, but this book, published in 1990, is a unique collection of his work using “Sakura” as a motif. The following is an extract from a text by world-renowned art director Eiko Ishioka: ‘If the shashin that symbolises the black side of Shomei-sama is “ NAGASAKI”, is it too poor and simplistic of me to think that sakura is the very symbol of the white side? Is it too simple? (in Japanese). Other texts by Shunji Ito, Nagisa Oshima and others. Book design by Kazushi Suzuki.