Daido Moriyama - To Nirvana and Back - 2004
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Daido Moriyama's To Nirvana and Back is a first edition Japanese-language photobook published in 2004 by Gendai Kikaku shitsu, bound softback with dust jacket and obi, 214 pages, bilingual English and Japanese, in very good condition.
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Description from the seller
To Nirvana and Back is a 2004 photobook by the critically acclaimed Japanese street photographer Daido Moriyama. Published by Gendai Kikaku shitsu, the book serves as a unique documentation of an avant-garde theatrical performance held in Japan.
The book serves as a comprehensive photo album detailing a highly specialized production of Shakespeare's King Lear, which was renamed Real King Lear. The experimental play was written and directed by Dutch artist Christiaan Bastiaans and staged in the rural Japanese town of Echigo-Tsumari. Bastiaans’ production intentionally weaved elements of local Japanese history with the real life stories of the performing actors' own families.
Moriyama collaborated on this project alongside award-winning designer Daisuke Nakatsuka to translate the theatrical experience into a tactile publication. Rather than simply being a book of stage production stills, it is structured as a complex visual diary and research archive.
Key artistic elements of the book include:
Theatrical and Cultural Juxtaposition: Moriyama's high-contrast photography heavily features images of blooming summer flowers, local hedges, narrow alleys, and traditional minka houses from the village.
The outdoor and stage imagery is intricately juxtaposed against historical family portraits, research material, and interviews conducted with local Japanese pensioners.
While Moriyama is universally known for his gritty, alienated, "Are-Bure-Boke" (grainy, blurry, out-of-focus) urban snapshots, To Nirvana and Back captures a more localized, melancholic essence of human engagement with nature, projecting a spiritual reflection on life and higan (the "other shore" or nirvana).
Book Specifications
Format: Softcover with a dust jacket and obi (belly band).
Length: 214–216 pages.
Language: Bilingual text printed in both English and Japanese.
Dimensions: 17.50 x 25.50 cm.
To Nirvana and Back is a 2004 photobook by the critically acclaimed Japanese street photographer Daido Moriyama. Published by Gendai Kikaku shitsu, the book serves as a unique documentation of an avant-garde theatrical performance held in Japan.
The book serves as a comprehensive photo album detailing a highly specialized production of Shakespeare's King Lear, which was renamed Real King Lear. The experimental play was written and directed by Dutch artist Christiaan Bastiaans and staged in the rural Japanese town of Echigo-Tsumari. Bastiaans’ production intentionally weaved elements of local Japanese history with the real life stories of the performing actors' own families.
Moriyama collaborated on this project alongside award-winning designer Daisuke Nakatsuka to translate the theatrical experience into a tactile publication. Rather than simply being a book of stage production stills, it is structured as a complex visual diary and research archive.
Key artistic elements of the book include:
Theatrical and Cultural Juxtaposition: Moriyama's high-contrast photography heavily features images of blooming summer flowers, local hedges, narrow alleys, and traditional minka houses from the village.
The outdoor and stage imagery is intricately juxtaposed against historical family portraits, research material, and interviews conducted with local Japanese pensioners.
While Moriyama is universally known for his gritty, alienated, "Are-Bure-Boke" (grainy, blurry, out-of-focus) urban snapshots, To Nirvana and Back captures a more localized, melancholic essence of human engagement with nature, projecting a spiritual reflection on life and higan (the "other shore" or nirvana).
Book Specifications
Format: Softcover with a dust jacket and obi (belly band).
Length: 214–216 pages.
Language: Bilingual text printed in both English and Japanese.
Dimensions: 17.50 x 25.50 cm.
Details
Number of books
1
Subject
Photography
Book title
To Nirvana and Back
Author/ Illustrator
Daido Moriyama
Condition
Very good
Publication year oldest item
2004
Edition
1st Edition
Language
English, Japanese
Original language
Yes
Publisher
Gendai Kikaku shitsu
Binding/ Material
Softback
Number of pages
214
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