“THE MOST FAMOUS, AND OFTEN CONTROVERSIAL, CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE PHOTOGRAPHER”

ARAKI, Nobuyoshi. Tokyo Lucky Hole. (Tokyo: Ohta Shuppan), 1990. Octavo, original stiff red wrappers, original photographic dust jacket, original bellyband. $1500.

First edition of Nobuyoshi Araki’s “best-known and most controversial” book (Parr & Badger), documenting the Japanese sex industry in over 350 black-and-white photogravures. With scarce bellyband.

"Nobuyoshi Araki is arguably the most famous, and often controversial, contemporary Japanese photographer." Although his work has often provoked arrest for violation of obscenity laws, Araki continues to turn his camera on "areas heretofore censored and considered shameful in Japan" (History of Japanese Photography, 334). "Tokyo Lucky Hole is one of Araki's best-known and most controversial books." In this "documentation of the Japanese sex industry… Araki's view is that of the voracious photographer who cannot stop clicking, even when participating in the 'action' himself. He is the inexhaustible voyeur." "In this original Japanese edition the Japanese censor" has covered exposed genitalia with black stickers" (Parr & Badger I:306). Containing over 350 black-and-white photogravures. With scarce bellyband. Text in Japanese. See Open Book, 254, 268-270; Roth, 206.

A fine copy.