Tetsuya Ichimura 一村哲也 - Shunga-shū Vol. I — Extra-Large Format / First Numbering Edition - 1972

Item Description
RARE OVERSIZED FIRST EDITION — 一村哲也 Tetsuya Ichimura Shunga-shū (春画集) — Vol. I (the Inaugural Volume) of the Original Trilogy — Numbered Copy No. 0057 — Published June 12, 1972

This is an exceptionally large-format, numbered limited-edition photography book — one of the rarest and most significant erotic art publications in postwar Japanese photography history.
It is Volume I — the inaugural and opening volume — of the landmark three-volume set titled Ichimura Tetsuya no Shunga-shū (一村哲也の春画集), published on June 12, 1972 by Ad Unguem Co., Ltd., Tokyo.
The edition number 0057 is stamped on the colophon page — an exceptionally early number within the limited print run, making this copy particularly desirable to collectors who place importance on low edition numbers.
This volume predates and was the direct source material for the later compiled edition Onna to Otoko — Ima-yō Shunga (女と男 今様春画), in which works by all three photographers were edited together into a single combined set.
This original trilogy volume therefore has priority status as the first and complete edition — an original collectible in its own right, distinct from and predating the subsequently better-known combined edition.
The photographs reinterpret shunga — the classical Japanese erotic art tradition mastered by Edo-period ukiyo-e artists such as Hokusai and Utamaro — through Ichimura's distinctive contemporary photographic lens.
The imagery is bold, theatrically composed, and combines photographic figure work with painterly and graphic elements, with vivid colour printing of the highest quality.
The book was designed and laid out by Furuya Naomi (古谷直美), produced by Ōmori Kenji (大森堅司), and published by Hara Zenzaburō (原 善三郎).
The other volumes in the trilogy were photographed by Yoshihiro Tatsuki (立木義浩, Vol. II) and Noriaki Kanō (加納典明, Vol. III).
Together these three major figures represented the apex of Japanese commercial and artistic photography in the early 1970s.
At 60.5 × 45.5 cm — nearly the size of a broadsheet newspaper — this is one of the largest photography books produced in Japan during the postwar period.
Its sheer physical scale is integral to the visual impact of the work.

Size
Height: 60.5 cm
Width: 45.5 cm

Weight
4,060 g (approx. 4.1 kg)

Condition
The book is presented in a distinctive three-layer housing structure:

The outermost layer is the original brown cardboard slipcase, printed with the photographer's signature "T. Ichimura" in large white script on the front, with the Ad Unguem Co., Ltd. label affixed to the lower right. The cardboard slipcase shows considerable age-related staining and spotting, and general surface wear consistent with 50+ years of storage.
The middle layer is a refined deep-navy decorative protective case, with the photographer's name "T. Ichimura" printed in small lettering on the lower right of the front. This navy case also shows some age-related spotting and light surface marks.
The innermost layer is the book itself, bound in elegant lavender-grey cloth boards and printed with the photographer's signature "T. Ichimura" in dark ink on the lower right of the front cover. The book itself is in reasonably clean condition, with only minor handling marks.

The book interior is bound in striking deep navy blue boards, with a large halftone-screen portrait of the photographer Ichimura himself printed across the front cover in white — a bold pop-art-inspired design that defines the visual identity of this volume.
The interior pages are in reasonably good condition with well-preserved colour printing throughout.
The colophon page (奥付), the artist's calligraphic title page (一村哲也 in brush calligraphy), and the critical essay pages with handwritten signatures by leading cultural figures of the time — including 石原慎太郎 (Shintarō Ishihara), 岩田専太郎 (Sentarō Iwata), 川上宗薫 (Sōkun Kawakami), and 秋山庄太郎 (Shōtarō Akiyama) — are all present and intact.
In summary: the outer cardboard slipcase and middle navy decorative case show clear signs of age including staining and spotting, while the book itself remains in reasonably clean and well-preserved condition.

Artist Profile
一村哲也 Tetsuya Ichimura is one of the most distinctive Japanese photographers of the postwar era, known for his bold compositional style and his work across both commercial and fine-art photography during the 1960s and 1970s.
Active alongside contemporaries such as Yoshihiro Tatsuki and Noriaki Kanō, Ichimura was part of a generation of photographers who transformed the visual language of Japanese photography by integrating advertising, fashion, and art-photography sensibilities into a single bold idiom.
His contribution to this 1972 trilogy — the inaugural volume of the project — established the visual tone and theatrical sensibility that the subsequent two volumes would follow, and his reinterpretation of classical Edo-period shunga iconography through modern photographic means remains one of the most distinctive achievements of his career.

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