Ikko Narahara - Man and His Land - 1971

Man and His Land

Ikko Narahara
Chuo Koron Sha /1971/Japanese/265*220*15

The Kingdom, a collection of photographs by leading Japanese photographer Kazutaka Narahara. After graduating from the Faculty of Law at Chuo University, Narahara studied art history at the postgraduate school of Waseda University, and thereafter became committed to avant-garde art, interacting with many artists and paving the way for a career as a photographer.Narahara made a strong debut with his 1956 exhibition ‘Human Land’ and won the Japan Photography Critics Society Newcomer Award with ‘Kingdom’ in 1958. From the 1960s onwards, he established a firm position with works such as ‘Europe - Still Time’ and ‘Vanishing Time’, which were published through his travels and emigrations abroad, and became a leading figure in post-war Japanese photography, earning him the nickname IKKO and a high reputation overseas. This book consists of three parts: ‘The Garden of Silence’, which depicts a men's convent in Hokkaido; ‘Inside the Walls’, a women's prison in Wakayama; and ‘Human Land’, published in 1956, which shows the isolated Nagasaki island of Gunkanjima and the village of Kurojin on Sakurajima.